Love and Ordona Pumpkins
by inlemoon
Summary: A series of oneshots telling how the Hero of Twilight and his princess came to be in love. T for some later chapters.
1. Goat Pens

Welcome to Love and Ordona Pumpkins, a tale of the love between princess and hero!

Please enjoy and review! Sometimes fanfiction likes to mess up the formatting, so it doesn't look quite like I want it to when it gets uploaded. So if you see any issues, lemme know and I'll correct them.

As always, review and I'll update faster. :p

I pretty much have this story written up, and I will post updates every few days.

* * *

Zelda was going to kill Link.

Not actually literally kill him, but threaten to a couple of times, and maybe dunk a bucket of ice on his head, or command one of the Gorons to hug him.

Shad watched wordlessly as she fumed like a chimney with too much firewood and too few vents.

"I can't believe he…..Oh that….ARGH LINK WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME?!" She threw up her hands, making a choking motion at an invisible Link in front of her.

It was unlike the princess to lose her calm like this. She was typically level-headed, and fair of heart. But right now, she was just plain mad.

The basket of twelve kittens meowed shrilly, each little head adorned with a ribbon and a flower. The loudest, a little gray speck of fur that Shad decided must be named Dusty, hopped out of the basket and caught onto the train of Zelda's silken dress.

"Oh no you do not, Mister," she said, reaching down to scoop him up and pressing her nose to his little pink one. She placed him back in the basket, but it was too late- he'd had his taste of freedom and silk, and he wanted more. As she was fighting off the little gray kitten from her train, another one hopped out, this one orange, and dug his claws in, too. Then another, and another, and another, until her train was no longer silk but silk tatters connected to a rainbow of kittens with flower-embellished ribbon collars.

Suddenly, the princess pressed her head to her temples and breathed in deeply. She placed a hand on her heart and put on her best dignified, placid smile, and began to walk out of the throne room, as twelve mewling kittens dragged behind her. She marched to the doors and threw them open. Her guards looked at her expectantly, for she had the look of authority she always got before issuing a command.

"Bring me the Hero of Twilight!" she ordered, over the meowing of twelve hungry kittens.

Her knights scampered off to find him, too dense to notice that when she turned around, her dress had twenty-four little eyes.

* * *

Zelda had insisted that Link pick out a penthouse close to the castle for when he visited; truth be told, he would have rather stayed in the castle as near to her as possible.

The right side of her bed would have been a most perfect accommodation. Or the left if she preferred. Even the floor would have been acceptable.

But they weren't sleeping together and she was not always available when he visited, so he picked out a small one-bedroom apartment. She'd given him an enormous purse and told him to furnish it, so he did. Truthfully, he didn't care very much for fancy things, but the peddlers at the Castle Towne market were so friendly and made such beautiful things, he could not resist. Really, he did it more to show that he wasn't just pocketing the money she gave him.

It was a third-story little home with a beautiful balcony that looked straight at the castle. It had an ivory porcelain tub and hot water- something he most certainly did not have in Ordon- and an indoor toilet.

He doubted Zelda ever had to use an outhouse in her life. Or even worse, squat behind a bush.

The image made him crack up.

Because if he couldn't sleep with her (he would have been perfectly content to just sleep next to her, even if she didn't want him to touch her…..not that he would object to that, either) he was going to do silly little things to make her smile or even make her mad or otherwise drive her insane the way her eyes and voice and lips did to him every time he saw her.

Once, he'd seen her in shorter skirt, one that brushed on her thighs, as she gardened in the summer heat, and he thought he would die. She liked to plant herbs in her personal garden- basil and marjoram and rosemary and thyme. Things that scented the air when a visitor walked by. Well, he went behind her and planted every possible lemon-scented herb he could find, and he watched from behind a column as she brushed her fingers over the green leaves and grinned.

Yes, it was probably slightly stalkerish.

His daydreams of Zelda were rudely interrupted by the sound of a goat and a pair of horns in his tush.

"What in Din's name?!"

A little dwarf goat, white and red, was bunting him with teeny horns. A sparkling ribbon was around its neck and an entire bouquet of castle garden flowers was tied to it.

Of course, the thing had pooped everywhere and eaten half of his very expensive furniture, but he was grinning from ear to ear when he plucked the note from the shimmering collar and read her elegant handwriting:

_Twelve kittens for one goat should do it._

_-Zelda_

So she'd gotten his message, then.

* * *

Telma's bar had most of the usual patrons, a few off-duty guards, and one hooded head perched on top of a distinctly feminine figure. Link wasn't stupid, and besides, the visitor smelled exactly like Zelda's orange blossom perfume. Telma brought up a mug of dark Ordon pumpkin beer, and a glass of her finest white wine. The figure sipped the wine.

"A lovely vintage, Telma. Like honeysuckle," and the bartendress trotted away happily.

So up he sauntered, baby goat in one arm, to the mysterious stranger. He flicked his hand towards her face and shoved back the hood.

And there she was, as splendid as she had ever been.

"You know, I kept this on to remain anonymous," she told him, a smile in her voice. She took another sip of her wine. "Truthfully, I could drink this entire bottle, it is so delicious." He reached for his drink thirstily, enjoying the rich flavors.

"PRINCESS ZELDA!" One of the guards at the next table had finally noticed her, and spilled his beer all over the table while attempting to stand to attention. Before she had the chance to tell them otherwise, the entire table had been flipped in a drunken mess. Link turned to Telma, who was about to kick all of them out.

"At ease, soldiers," she told them, and they looked relived. "Go about your night. Should something horrible happen, I'm sure the Hero can protect me. "She batted her eyes coquettishly- Link laughed, because she could probably beat all of them up with a single light arrow- and turned her attention back to him.

"Now, about our business." She reached into a rucksack and produced a long piece of lilac cloth that had been torn to shreds. Telma began yelling at the soldiers, jabbing her fingers in the air.

"I do believe you owe me a new dress."

"Well, I do believe you owe me new furniture and a maid to clean my floors."

"I'm the one who bought you your furniture to begin with, so I don't owe you anything. And you're the one who instigated this mess." Her eyes sparkled.

"Well, Princess, as you point out, I have no money to buy you a fine silken dress worthy of royalty."

"The thought crossed my mind. I could perhaps give you a purse and measurements and you could pick one out yourself for me."

"Can it be short and low and transparent?" The words were out before he realized what it, and he slammed his fist into his mouth before it got him into further trouble.

Zelda's eyebrows shot up so far they practically disappeared behind her hair and her mouth fell open slightly. But the mischievous grin soon came back.

"I could have you flogged for that, you know?" Link nodded, still biting on his knuckles even though she was smiling widely.

"Well, then, since you have several things to make up for now, I do believe I will come visit you in Ordon for a few days, and you will show me your home. And then I do believe you will come to the garden and plant some Ordon pumpkins. And you mustn't wear a shirt."

Link dislodged his hand, and words were supposed to come out of his mouth. But he could only open and close it.

"You look like koi in the castle ponds."

"Yes, I suppose I do," he said, breathlessly, squeezing his lips together and puffing his cheeks out like a fish.

"That'll get her, honey! How could any girl resist that face?" he heard Telma shout from behind them.

Zelda's laughter sounded like a merry crystal bell.

"Then we must pick out a dress first! I'm sure someone is still open," she announced, pulling Link away from his pumpkin beer and dragging him into the street. As they closed the door, they heard Telma yell,

"What am I supposed to do with the goat?!"

* * *

In truth, few shops were open at that time, but when the princess of Hyrule comes knocking gently on the door, one extends their hours.

He'd groaned when Ilia and Beth took him shopping, tried not to the one time Midna made him sit there (right before she'd left for the Twilight Realm forever), and was trying to suppress his boredom now. The best part of this was getting to see the girls, but the worst part was sitting there for what seemed like hours, waiting for them to finish. It always amazed him how for every ten dresses to go in, he only got to see one…if that.

Finally, Zelda parted the curtain, and the shopkeeper gasped loudly at her beauty. Link wondered if she was used to such extreme flattery. _Probably_.

Then again, she did look stunning.

The dress certainly wasn't transparent, but it was fitted beautifully and had a deep V-neck. It skimmed her knees, showing her slender (but well-muscled from her rapier training) calves. It was duckling-yellow with blue embroidery that matched her eyes. He couldn't help but grin stupidly at her.

"You look beautiful," he told her, keeping his eyes on her face and away from her calves. She spun around, the skirt flying out and showing a pretty scalloped petticoat.

"Is Epona rested?" she asked, surprising him.

"Er…..I haven't taken her out for a few days, so she should be. Why?"

"Because I am buying a pair of boots and we are leaving for Ordona Province!"

"_Now_? Princess," he never called her Zelda in front of most people, which made her oddly sad, "It's at least two days away, and that's riding straight!"

"I'm well aware of where Ordona is! I've been there before, you know."

"I know that, I just….haven't packed!"

"Which is why I had my servants pack for you." She beamed. "All of our supplies should be at the stables by now. Ms. Agnes, do you have any leather riding boots?"

"A beautiful selection, Your Highness! Knee high? Ankle?"

"Knee high will be fine."

"Wonderful choice. We have some that will match your dress perfectly!" The shopkeeper scurried off to find them.

"Zelda," Link asked, once they were alone, "why do you give me so few choices as to what we do when we are together? You have an entire kingdom at your disposal, you know."

The look Zelda gave him with filled with far more sadness and longing than he had intended, and he cursed himself for making her feel badly. _Idiot!_

She turned away, hiding her eyes from his.

"I control far less than you'd think," she finally said, as the shopkeeper brought her a pair of boots. He was confused, sure that she was not talking about Hyrule.

* * *

"I haven't met your horse before, "he told her, laying a hand on the beautiful black Arabian. The mare was full of spit and attitude, he could tell, but listened to her mistress well. _Dark and light_, _elegant and quiet on the outside, spirited and wild on the inside, _he mused, unsure of which girl was thinking of.

"Her name is Sonatina, after my favorite song." Link had no idea what that meant, his ignorance plain on his face. Zelda laughed softly.

"A sonatina is a small sonata. Do you know what that is?" Link nodded. He'd heard some of the minstrels play piano sonatas in Castle Towne.

"It's a pretty name," he said, "for a pretty girl." He pulled a sugar cube out of his pocket and she munched happily on it.

The horses' saddles were packed with his sword and shield, clothes, food, two sleeping bags and a tent. It occurred to him that they would likely be sleeping next to each other. He tried to hide his reddening cheeks.

The princess slung a leg up onto her mare in a very unladylike fashion, clicked her tongue, and headed out of the stables.

"Wrong door, princess. Ordon's the other way."

"Oh, quiet, you." She turned her horse around, and trotted past them with her head held up high.

* * *

Sonatina did not do "slow" very well, and they didn't talk for most of the trip. Poor Epona was pooped by the time they reached Faron Woods, and that was saying something. But Sonatina listened to impeccably to Zelda; Link could not help but marvel.

"Did you train her yourself?" he asked. He would have thought one of the stable hands would have taken care of that.

"Yes, actually. She was born wild. None of the stable hands could break her in. They were just going to slaughter her and sell her for meat. But I looked in her eyes and saw myself in them…..a little wild thing locked up in a stable, a pretty prison, when her heart longed for greener pastures. I told them that if they tried to kill her, I'd have them all discharged." Her eyes were soft and she patted the black nose. "She didn't want to be taken care of. She just wanted to be free." Her voice had dropped to a barely audible whisper. Link had no response.

He just outstretched his hand, gently putting it over Zelda's, and stroked the beautiful mare.

* * *

They reached Ordon Village about three days later, and the instant the children saw him, there was a commotion. Sonatina was not used to such noise and began to get very nervous. Link, worried that she may accidentally hurt someone, dismounted and shooed them off to look for Ilia.

"You think Ilia will be able to handle her?" he asked Zelda, curious.

"If she doesn't try to ride her, probably." As if on cue, the pretty green-eyed girl emerged from her house, smiling widely. Talo and Colin followed her closely, with a shy-looking Beth lagging behind.

Talo marched right up to Link, looking from the Princess on her horse to Link on the ground. Eyes bold, he near-shouted at them.

"So is this your girlfriend, Link? Are ya gonna kiss her?" Link popped his gloved hand onto the boy's head and tried to ignore his flipping stomach.

"She is the princess of Hyrule, and no, I am not going to kiss her." _How he wanted to._

He handed Epona's reigns to Ilia, and had begun to launch into instructions for Sonatina. Ilia just looked annoyed.

"I know how to handle horses, Link," she told him, rolling her eyes. With that, Zelda dismounted, and Sonatina was led off to the Ordon's humble stables.

Zelda had visited Ordon Village before, to thank them for their help in the battles of Twilight, but it had been winter and little was growing. Now, in the middle of spring, every house was surrounded by lush pumpkin patches. Orange, white, and green fruit peeked out from the broad leaves. She heard bumblebees buzzing about pollinating the large yellow flowers.

* * *

She stayed for four days, sleeping in Link's treehouse bed while he slept on the floor. She worked on political things while carried about his herding duties. He'd cook for her as she worked on paperwork at the tree-stump he called a desk, and when she got too stressed, he'd stroke her hand gently until she would calm down. And much to Link's surprise, she even tidied up his home when he was gone, dusting off and organizing his (sparse) bookshelves.

She would have left earlier, after only two days, but Link had done something most churlish.

He had promised he'd stay for four days (Zelda probably should have spoken up then, but the kids looked so happy when he returned that she couldn't bring herself to do so), so on the third day, she woke up with him and saddled her horse in preparation to leave. When he realized what she was doing, he was livid.

"You will not be travelling across Hyrule Field without a companion," he said stubbornly.

She cocked an eyebrow at him.

"Did you just command your princess to do something?" His eyes faltered but his resistance did not.

"Who will protect you at night? There are still monsters out!"

"I will merely stop a Kakariko for the first night, and Belle Plaza at the second, and travel only during the day."

"You still are not going."

"And how will you stop me?"

"I will lock you into the goat pen until you agree to stay for another day, and allow me to accompany you."

"You will do no such thing."

His eyes simmered like blue fire.

"Watch me." He grabbed her around the waist and pulled her up onto Epona, sitting her right in front of him on the saddle.

"How _dare_ you!" she cried, anger bubbling up, along with another emotion she couldn't quite identify. It was threatening to make her smile stupidly.

"How dare _you_ say you will leave on your own?! No, to the goat pen with you."

He rounded up the goats angrily, one hand gripping Epona's reigns and the other gripping her waist so hard she was sure she would bruise. Once they were penned up he slung down from his horse, throwing her unceremoniously over his shoulder as if she weighed nothing.

She'd threatened to have him beheaded and to cut off all contact with Ordon and to have him exiled and to punch him and kick him and shoot his evil heart with light arrows and she had to get back for official purposes and didn't have time to wait on a simple goat herder's promises and a billion other insults, but they fell onto deaf ears as he climbed the goat pen and lightly tossed her over. She watched as he locked the padlock and filled a canteen with water, shoving it through the bars, and stood on the other side, arms crossed and eyes burning expectantly.

The goats smelled, but were friendly enough to her, a few of the does nuzzling her hand for affection. They were certainly treated her better than the humans in the proxminity.

"Will you agree to stay now?" he said, supposing she would cave.

But princesses don't cave in hostage situations.

"No! I'd rather sleep with the goats than agree with you!"

It was not the answer Link expected, for he threw up his arms and mounted Epona wordlessly.

"Then sleep with the goats!" he yelled at her.

Once his back was turned, the grin that had been threatening to break free finally crossed her face.

"I expect dinner before sunrise!" she yelled at him, beaming. He trotted angrily off. _My, what an adorable temper._

* * *

"Hey, Link! Where's the princess? I saw you two ride to the goat pasture," Uli called to him as he trotted back to the village.

"She is locked in the goat pen."

"WHAT."

"She wouldn't agree to stay, and wanted to head out on her own. I wouldn't have it, so I locked her in the goat pen."

"LINK YOU LITERALLY CANNOT DO THAT TO A PRINCESS!"

He shrugged.

"Well, I did." And he left for his treehouse for a nap, still livid at her stubbornness.

* * *

Meanwhile, the princess found a nice bale of unsoiled hay, and fell asleep on it. The barn was pleasant, and very clean (for a barn), and the does were very curious as to why this human was sleeping on their food. They were better company than most of her court.

Truthfully, she could have scaled the fence if she had wanted, or burst it open with her magic, but found herself enjoying the smell of grass and the nibbles of the goats too much to do so.

Really, much better company than her court.

* * *

Link tried to take a nap but with every toss or turn in his bed, Zelda's scent drifted into his nose, making sleep utterly impossible to find. He was still livid.

It was her way of cursing him for being in love with her. She was ethereally beautiful, kind, stubborn, benevolent, brilliant, educated, way out of his league, and she'd been sleeping in his bed for the past two nights because his friendship was her best option for stress relief.

He buried his face further into the pillow and ignored the stirring between his legs as long as he could. But that wasn't very long, and rather than do something very embarrassing in his sleep, he decided to fetch her from her livestock prison.

* * *

She had fallen asleep on the bales of hay, looking like a barn angel.

_Barn angel? Really? Is that right next to livestock goddess?_ He thought, before realizing either title would have suited her just perfectly.

Her dress had bunched up around her waist and the bottom of her rear was ever so slightly visible beneath her panties. Her legs, her glorious, beautiful legs, were completely showing.

He slammed his hand against the metal fence to break his train of thought_. Too much. TOO MUCH. Way. Too. Much._

She woke with a start, and stared serenely at him.

"It isn't sunset yet. Have you decided to release your prisoner?"

"Yes," he murmured, watching as she rose from her spot.

She stretched, then put her arms in front of her, and from them a beam of light shot out. It snaked into the lock and opened it with a click, and for yet another time that day, Link stood slack-jawed in furious amazement.

"You could have gotten out of here the ENTIRE TIME?"

"Yes," she said slyly as she walked past him, "but then I wouldn't have gotten to see your expression."

She mounted Epona and began to trot back to the village, leaving Link to follow.


	2. Red and Blue

Surprise! An update. This is a really long oneshot. More like a longshot. HA I MADE A ZELDA JOKE. BWAHAHAHAHAHAHHA.

I should also note, these aren't normally going to be consecutive, and some will be angsty, some will be happy, some will be fluffy, (okay a lot of fluff), but...enjoy!

* * *

Loving him was as red as blood.

Or maybe the strawberries that he brought her, fresh from Hyrule field, bursting sweetness in her mouth.

Or maybe the roses that she wanted to plant after she fell for him because white was too pure and yellow too happy and pink too delicate to express the churning feeling in her belly every time she looked at him.

Maybe as red as Midna's beautiful, long Twili eyes. She shuddered. Did he love Midna instead?

"_I have to leave, Zelda. And you won't see me again."_

"_I'll miss you," was all Zelda managed. _

"_And I you. Greatly. And…. Him." She slowly drew her eyes away from Zelda's. "You must promise to take care of him. He is kind of an idiot."_

"_Have you told him?"_

"_That I'm leaving forever? No."_

"_That's not what I meant." But Midna knew that already._

_The Twili sighed, and looked out the window the rising sun._

"_Have you?" she questioned Zelda, and both women sat in silent melancholy._

Maybe it was red like a child's balloons at a birthday party.

Or the cinnamon candies her grandmother used to eat.

Or as red as a ladybug.

Or maybe the fireworks that exploded over the castle after Ganondorf was finally defeated.

Or maybe it was as red as the dirt in Kakariko or the wine she liked to drink when her day was too demanding or the color of his skin after he spent too much time in the garden planting the aforementioned roses, because he was kind like that and he didn't want her to cut a finger and he lived every moment of his life to make her smile. Plus, he owed her a garden.

"Why red?" he asked her, digging further into the moist earth, gently covering the delicate roots of the cuttings.

_Because of you, _she thought. But she did not say it.

"It's my new favorite color," she told him, wishing she could meet his eyes but knowing that if she did, he'd see emotion that should not be directed at him.

So she just watched the muscles on his bare back, observing the tanned skin, as he worked to plant the bushes.

_Red as the flowers, _she decided. _Like loving a single rose with four dozen hidden thorns._

_That_ was what loving him was like.

* * *

Loving her was as blue as the sea.

Or maybe the blueberries he'd bring her from Hyrule field when they were in season, as tart as they were sweet, full of richness.

Or maybe the sky, wide and unending, but that was cliché and wasn't all blue love like loving the sky, anyway?

The sea was pretty cliché, too.

Maybe it was blue like the poisonous scorpions that populated Gerudo desert.

Or the sparkling blue-green of a Goron magnet.

Maybe that was it. He was certainly attracted to her like a magnet. If they were in a room together, he would wind up at her side or behind her. It didn't matter how many people were in the room or his many other conversations he would get involved with, it would all dissipate and the orbit of the earth would abruptly shift. Even when he de facto fiancé was there on his arm, looking as lovely as any courtly woman but nowhere near as mannerly, it all melted away into nothing.

When Ilia would laugh a little too loudly or smack Link's arm a little too aggressively for a proper lady, Zelda did not flinch or get upset at her ignorance. Ignoring the stares of the other uptight women, she would join in, raising her voice to match the ranch girl's and patting his other arm.

Her kindness made him fall even harder in love with her.

Zelda, that was. The one he wasn't supposed to be in love with. He'd tried to swallow his love for her but it stuck in his throat like a fishbone that wouldn't go down.

Oh.

_That_ was what loving her was like.

It was like the crystalline palace of the Zoras, bright and blue and clear and perfect, sharp and proud, shining brilliant light over every facet of his soul like she was a mirror.

That was when he told Ilia he couldn't do it anymore, and he was sure he heard her heart shattering.

* * *

Midna.

He could have probably loved Midna. He _did _love her, actually. It was….complicated.

He'd felt his heart rush into his throat when he'd first seen her, tall and strong with her flaming red eyes. And it was there in hers, too. Love. She was in love with him. It hit him like a Goron falling from the sky, that she was in love with him and he probably could have been in love with her, too, if she'd stayed just a little bit longer. Except maybe not, because if she would have stayed and Zelda would have been nearby, that would have made the situation infinitely more complicated, and it was pretty rough already.

He was shattered when she left. A bit of it was like losing a lover but most of it was losing a friend. His best friend. The person who awoke a wildness in him he'd long felt but never realized. And there was something underneath that, a shadow that hung over them even after she was gone; the loss of potential.

_But light and shadow can't mix,_ as she told them. And she left in a shower of broken glass.

Even if she would have stayed, he wasn't so sure he could pull away from Zelda. Where Midna seemed like a promise, Zelda was an inevitability. He could travel far and wide and love every princess or ranch girl or and turn over every stone to find someone else and it would lead him straight back to her, as if some cosmic deity shoved him straight into loving her.

But if the universe wanted them to be together, why did it make it so very difficult? Couldn't he have been born a prince or she a farmer's daughter?

Then again, he had a lovely green-eyed farmer's daughter he'd left crying in a ditch back home.

His love life was _complicated_.

* * *

_As he watched Ilia wash Epona, her eyes sparkling in the sun, Rusl sat down next to him._

"_You don't look at her quite the same, boy," he said. Link remained silent, and Rusl simply sighed._

"_You were never truly meant to stay here, you know."_

"_That's not it," Link said, still watching the woman he was supposed to marry. Rusl's eyes crinkled in understanding._

"_Once a man has visited heaven, earth seems far less appealing, doesn't it?" And with that, the older man stood up, leaving Link to his thoughts. _

* * *

Beads of sweat rolled down his back and condensed on his arms as he dug up the old, dead flowers and planted the new ones. Pots and pots of red flowers that she'd bought from the market.

Millie the goat had gotten considerably bigger (for a dwarf goat anyway) and seemed to follow him like a daughter hangs on her father's every words, reaching up to him for knowledge and strength (and pets.) As he patted the goats' head and moved her ever so gently aside to dig more, Zelda felt her heart flutter.

_He'd make such a wonderful father. He'd make sturdy sons and daughters, beautiful like sunshine and strong like the earth. I wonder if I would even be strong enough to bear them._

_Wait, what? _

It made her get up to her feet and walk right behind him, looking over his shoulder with a child's curiosity. He was beautifully built, but lean, his sturdy legs rooting him onto the ground as he moved from plant to plant, setting each down with equal gentle care.

She decided to touch his back.

Gently, at first, running a finger from his neck down the dip of his spine to his rear, feeling his perspiration soak her finger. He didn't realize that it was her and he snapped his hand behind him, without looking, until realization tensed him. His hand hovered then gingerly encased her finger, and blue crystals cut to her over his shoulder. Even from the side, Zelda could see his nostrils were flared.

"Think before you leap, Princess," he said smoothly.

"I thought the point was that you were not supposed to."

His hand gripped further.

"If we fall into this chasm, I'm afraid there isn't a clawshot long enough to get us out."

Her finger was beginning to lose circulation.

Her mouth was dry as she spoke her next words.

"Did you know that there are several species of flying insects where, even though the female isn't bigger or stronger than the male, she has bigger wings and can fly much further, carrying him far enough to reach a mountaintop?" She expected him to break at that, but he didn't. Instead, the blue disappeared, facing forward, and the tension in his shoulders released.

"We can't, Zelda."

"Why not?" He threw up his arms.

"You know why not! There are more reasons for why not than there are why!"

"Quantity," she whispered, licking her lips to try and wet them again, "does not outweigh quality."

Finally, he turned to face her head-on, a golden god of a man with eyes that raged and a mouth that could have ripped her soul out.

"Your marriage to another well-off duke or prince or whatever other title you can think of would help cement Hyrule's future. You will not throw that away for _me _like some starry-eyed little girl! I know you better than that. You aren't an idiot. I've heard you say that you won't marry for those reasons, that the Princess of Destiny abolished those rules hundreds of years ago, but what would happen? I'd marry you and live in the castle? Deal with politics? I'm a goat herder and a pumpkin farmer and I'd be a terrible king."

"Who said you'd become king?" she shot back at him, taking him by surprise. "You wouldn't, actually, because you'd give up rights to my property and crown when we married and I wouldn't want you to be king, anyway, because you'd get angry and tell off the wrong diplomat and that would completely ruin everything."

"Well what if I wanted to be king?" he yelled, throwing the shovel he'd been using onto the ground.

"I thought you didn't want to be!" she shouted back, jabbing him hard in the chest with one pointed finger.

"_WELL I DON'T!" _he screamed, his voice cracking.

"_Good! Then it's settled! We will marry in six months' time!"_

"_FINE," _he hissed.

"Fine."

"_Fine."_

"Fine."

"Fine."

"….fine."

He stared at her.

"Your finger on my back led to us getting engaged," he said, swallowing hard.

"Yes."

"Can we just start acting married today?"

"…yes," she told him, "but it will have to be secret."

"How does a royal keep an affair secret?"

"…..you would be terribly amazed at the answer to that question," she whispered.

"Can I at least find a ring?"

"Yes. I prefer sapphires to diamonds. And nothing ostentatious." She turned around, walking as mightily as she could, ignoring her jelly legs and ragged breath.

It was only when she reached her chambers, that she realized she probably should have kissed him.

* * *

Link tapped on the door to Zelda's room twice. When she slid it open, he presented her with a pumpkin pie he'd made himself after the cooks went to bed. Her eyes widened in joy.

"Oh, Ordon pumpkin pie! One of the most delicious things our kingdom has ever produced." Link grinned, satisfied with his choice.

He liked to surprise her with pastries and sweets and such. She liked to see (and taste) the progress the kingdom was making.

"We are having a wonderful crop this year, as you saw earlier. Soon the streets of Castle Town will smell like nothing but cinnamon."

He watched as she placed the pie on her study table and tapped three times on the top; a hidden drawer slid silently out. From this, she withdrew two forks, and a wicked grin crossed her face.

"This is one of my favorite things to do," she whispered in glee, and stuck the fork right into the pie without cutting a slice. Link threw his head back in laughter at the very unladylike display. He pulled a brown paper bag off of his belt, and placed it next to the pie.

"Some of Uli's pumpkin fudge. Extra pecans and vanilla bean, just for the princess." But Zelda was too consumed in eating the pie- she'd shoveled a fourth of it into her mouth already- to say anything. Link picked up the other fork and tucked in, too. He'd done a fantastic job. It was smooth and creamy and eggy and custardy, and the crust was flaky and buttery.

_A man from Ordon knows his pumpkins, _he thought.

Half of the pie was gone before Zelda tipped back in her chair, eyes closed. A few flakes sat on the corner of her shapely lips. Link reached out, without thinking, and brushed them off.

Zelda's eyes flew open.

"I let you into my bedchambers in the middle of the night to discuss political affairs that should be left for the council, eat half a pie on my lonesome without cutting it first…we've passed the point of inappropriate." Link's grin returned to his face, but vanished when he noticed the weariness in her eyes.

They had always reminded him of an autumn day- the beautiful bright blue of the heavens, with flecks of yellow and hazel. But now they just looked dull and tired and empty. He cocked his head and took another forkful of pie, offering it to her, but she just shook her head and laid it on the table.

"Why do I do this to myself?" she whispered, and Link knew the question wasn't meant to be answered. He wanted to hold her, to hug her and kiss every pastry flake and problem away, but he kept his hands still.

After several minutes, the princess rose from her seat, and asked him a most curious question.

"Have you heard of the rumors between the Hero of Time and the Princess of Destiny?"

Link shook his head, and Zelda sighed.

"Of course you haven't. They rarely leave the castle. The proof of many unofficial things rarely does." She walked to the other side of the room, staring out of her large balcony window, the sheer blue curtains billowing inwards and surrounding her like a cornflower aura.

"The Hero of Time and the Princess of Destiny lived several centuries ago, as you know. And you know how they sealed the evil lord Ganondorf into the evil realm, still with the Triforce of Courage embedded into his hand. And you know that she sent him back seven years, to regain the childhood he had lost. And it is in the public records that he warned her, and they became the closest of friends; he was named the Knight of Knights and she was named Queen of Hyrule. She married a sickly Duke and he married a lovely ranch girl, and both had children with their spouses, carrying on each of their lineages.

"It is the timeline that is most interesting, if you look hard enough. Official records show that she bore a child seven months after they wed, which died one month after. For that month, from the moment she entered labor until she released an official statement, she hid away in her chambers, allowing no one in. After a short recovery, she bore a second son, this one vigorous and strong and healthy, but the Duke passed away soon after.

"Sometime in that time between the first royal child and the second, the Hero of Time and his ranch girl were wed. A few months passed but she did eventually bare him as child, as well. However, it was too much for her, and she died when the babe was but a month as well. All of this is difficult to weed out; however, if you have access to the castle archives, it's all there plainly enough. Now. You won't easily find the death of the ranch girl in public record, but she also died around the same time as the Duke.

"But if one delves further, one finds a most interesting note. The Hero of Time raised two sons that were supposedly his own, one a year older. One was golden-haired and the other had a head of fire, and both had the same brilliant azure eyes. It is said that he loved both equally and raised them to be good, fair citizens of Hyrule. He accepted a position as Captain of the Guard and they were raised for the rest of their lives in the castle, until the younger married and moved back to his ranch. It is said that he began a business selling the most divine goat cheese and pumpkin pastries Hyrule ever knew. Eventually, as new provinces were acquired, the capital moved to Lanayru, where this very castle stands. But the children of the rancher stayed, and founded the village of Ordon.

"So what does this tell you, Hero of Twilight? You have told me your suspicions on your ancestry before."

Link just stood there in silence.

"I was granted the privilege of all royal women, the ones born into the line, anyway. A secret so valuable, most kings do not even know if its existence." She walked over to her study desk and tapped it again- seven times, in different areas- and a large drawer seemed to dislodge itself from the side.

"The personal journals of the queens before me." Link nodded dumbly, as if he understood exactly what that meant.

"The Princess of Destiny had a most interesting journal, the thickest of any volume, and it was not merely her handwriting on the pages. Another- a rougher, more slanted, much more _masculine _handwriting- seems to have contributed. Yet never, in the history of this secret, has this happened before." The princess flipped to a bookmarked page, and began to read.

_"At forty years old, I feel like this story must be passed onto the women of this line, lest the truth be lost forever. _

_I selected the Duke of Alchton for reasons that had little to do with love. However, the agreement was mutual. He'd fallen for a cigarette girl in an outlying settlement of Labrynna, and no royal promises or beauty could possibly tear him away from her. It was a secret we shared, and besides his lover only one other soul knew of it. _

_The memories of my other life started slowly, awakening slightly when I first saw the boy in green in my courtyard. I remember thinking- should he not have a fairy? I have surely met him before. But when his warnings were correct and he'd earned the privileges of roaming the castle and becoming my playmate, the memories unfurled slowly over the years. As we grew over the seven years he had slept in his other life, it had become plain. We were in love before, and I was falling in love with him again. It was a great and terrible love, but a beautiful love, to transcend the boundaries of time. _

_ Perhaps in that other time I could have married him officially; he would have made the fairest of kings. Perhaps we could have overruled the traditions of Hyrule royalty to only marry other wealthy families. But my father was alive in this lifetime and though his eyes met mine with sympathy- he'd come to love Link as a son he had never had- the rules were clear, and they would not be broken._

_ But love forges its own path around the rules humans try to create, and the Duke's proposal fell into my lap the way dying autumn leaves fall onto the ground. He was ill- deathly, sickly ill- but he wanted to pass his bloodline on, and frankly, I needed to produce a legitimate heir. Thankfully, Hyrule values her daughters almost as highly as her sons, so I only needed one of either. One refreshing aspect of my marriage was that it was very honest- we both knew exactly the predicament of the other, and we became friends. I mourned his death, for I could have done much worse._

_ I'd told him plainly that my maidenhood had taken by another man long before him and that I was with child and he would always be an acquaintance in my bed, never a lover- but he was not fazed by this. For if I had a lover he could certainly be with his Labrynnish girl. _

_ We were equally tired of the expectations placed upon us. We married when I was two months pregnant. _

_ The child had Link's sparkling blonde waves and determined cerulean eyes, and I loved the boy more than anything else I had ever loved before. I would have kept him but Father was still alive and would have had the child thrown into impoverishment, for one look at his ferocious eyes would have betrayed his true parentage. So I hid in my chambers, citing a traumatic birth and a sickly, dying babe, and turned over my state affairs to Impa. _

Zelda took a seat at the table, and gestured for Link to do the same. His eyes had become as wide as tea saucers and his mouth hung agape. If he was going to pass out, he at least needed to be sitting. She flipped a few pages, and continued.

_The first month of Milo's life was one of the happiest I'd experienced at that time. Link would visit the castle, staying nights with me. It was a fleeting taste of what we could have been, and the hurt was the sweetest thing I'd ever felt. Word around the kingdom spread that Hyrule's princess nearly died in labor, and the child was as sick as Filo was. I let them gossip. But that month flew by faster than I could blink. I do not know how to articulate what changed, but after that month, when Milo began to grow stronger and louder and more beautiful by the day, and it was plain that his eyes would be exactly that of his father's, Link snuck out of my chambers wordlessly, our child bundled in his arms. _

_And with that, my lies of omission became active, for after a month, I sent out a statement of death for my still living son, and watched as we buried an empty tiny casket. _

_It was shortly after his departure that he sent official word of his marriage to Malon. I saw him four timesthat next year; once to bless his wedding, another for the birth of his second child, thirdly at the funeral of Malon, and fourthly when he showed up to my bed. But it was the birth of his second that sticks most in my mind._

_In a cruel twist of fate, it was Malon who had a horrible birth and nearly passed away in labor. The lies I could afford so luxuriously were truths for her. It was plain that she would not last long, but the woman tried to hold on as long as she could. I insisted on seeing her. It was two weeks before she passed. I'd travelled to the ranch, thinking only of the soft blonde baby boy I'd once held in my arms, and met her and their baby. It was a beautiful baby boy, with her striking red hair and melodic voice, and ferocious eyes like his father. Link greeted me wordlessly at the door, his eyes so torn with pain and guilt when he could not pull them away from mine. But he waved a hand at an upstairs door and in I went, to meet the woman that should have been me._

_She was sickly pale and her beautiful copper hair was plastered against her forehead. The pain upon my visitation was obviously written across her face. She did not greet me, and her words are permanently etched into my mind:_

_ "There are some wounds even a song cannot heal."_

_ We talked for a few hours after that. She knew she was dying. She knew that Link loved her as best as he could- but that you can only love so much when half of your heart is residing with someone else. She asked if her child would be loved as much as mine, and I told her yes. She asked if I would love Link the way she did, and I said yes. She made me promise to help Link take care of the ranch- he was good with the horses, but tended to sleep too much and would forget to do some of the chores. I told her yes, the ranch would always be tended to. She told me that if we sold it, it needed to be to someone who truly loved the life. And I promised that yes, I would always take care of it, as long as I lived. _

_ When I left, she did smile, and kissed my hand. It was then Milo ran in, enormous blue eyes boring into my soul, and called her "mama."_

_ I would have abdicated the throne right there, but what would have I been able to offer him? A life on the run as his mother was hunted down for treason?_

_ Two weeks later, the news of her passing came to me, and I redecorated the halls of the castle with white-and-blue banners to honor her. _

_ And it was another two weeks after that when Link appeared on my balcony window. _

_ "I was hoping your husband wouldn't be in your bed tonight," he had whispered, his eyes blazing like a cat's in the darkness. I asked him where the children were. He'd allowed them to visit with the Kokiri- the little forest children took impeccable care of babies, and relief flooded my heart. He wanted them to know the community and love that he had known growing up. With such wonderful people, they would be happy children. _

_ I let him in that night. He made love as ferociously as ever, and when he turned to dress and leave I'd offered to heal the bleeding scratchmarks on his back but he refused, saying he would rather keep them. But when he showed up the next night, I turned him away; for Filo was becoming sicker and sicker and I had yet to bear him a true child. For Filo was still my husband and I loved him dearly and gratefully._

_The look of betrayal and hurt in Link's eyes nearly set me on fire, and for the hundredth time that year I considered abdicating. _

_Finally, I fell with child, except I did not hide behind my rooms for this one; this child would see the sunlight and glory that Hyrule had to offer. Born looking exactly like his father, down to the sprinkle of cinnamon freckles on his nose, not a soul could argue. When Filo died, I rocked him in my arms, crying and wishing for a hero and two little toddlers, a redhead and a blonde, to help fill the emptiness in my heart. _

_Every time I held Keyais up for his people to see their future king, or nursed him, or held him, the bitterest of tastes rose in my mouth, and I thought of another golden-haired child and his golden-haired father. _

_I publicly vowed to never marry again, citing a heart too broken to mend, from a dead first child and a dead husband. The court and the people were thankfully forgiving. My father passed soon afterwards. At one point, I likely would have mourned more than I did. But the month spent with Link in my chambers, hiding my child from him, only served to reinforce how cruel he could truly be._

_Oh, if only they knew the truth, for by that time my memories had fully awakened. _

Zelda tore her eyes from the journal, and smirked at Link. His mouth had closed and he was listening with utmost concentration.

She flipped to another bookmarked section.

_I did not see the Hero of Time until Keyais was two years old, Milo four and Talo three. _

_He swung onto my balcony one night, after I'd put the youngest to sleep. He wordlessly pinned me to the bed with his hips and ripped by dressing gown clean in two and ran his tongue over me like he was tasting salvation, and I vowed that I would never turn him away from my bed again. _

_He moved into the castle shortly after and I named him the Captain of the Guard, and I watched as the children grew up together. We instilled fairness into them, as being two equivalent parts of one whole, and let the castle gossip at our connection. Let them gossip about an illicit lover. Let them talk about how his first born looked so very much like me. Milo surely wasn't an idiot, for he'd figured it out by the time he was twelve. _

_I was a good Queen- Link had long taught me that overt humility was a waste of time- and whenever a banquet was held for me, it paled in comparison to the accomplishments I'd achieved with my sons, both adopted and true. _

Zelda closed the journal and looked at the Hero of Twilight across from her. She had to choke back laughter.

His cheeks were flushed, his mouth twitching, and his eyes were still comically wide. He looked like someone had just slapped him across the face, or that he had just seen a very beautiful naked woman.

"The royals are much more salacious than you'd imagined, are they not?"

The best he could manage was a nod.

"I suppose, then, that I should not feel so terrible about eating a pie straight from the pan."

Finally, a smile cracked across Link's face, and it was too much for Zelda. The rest happened very quickly- she pushed her chair back and jumped on the table, crawling towards him. She leapt forward, planting her lips onto his.

His chair rocked backwards and they fell to the ground with a very large boom, splintering the wooden legs, as they pressed their lips together, locked into a destiny neither wanted to fight.

"If you read further, you will find that one of the most notable things the Queen abolished were the marriage rules for royalty to commoners. Of course, it is still widely preferred that the rich only fraternize with themselves, but the heart doesn't care about the number of Rupees in your purse." She pushed her lips to his again.

"I did get you a ring," he managed, between kisses.

"Splendid! Show me later."

"I never thought the royal journals would be so….explicit."

Zelda's eyes gleamed bright in the candlelight.

"You should read what the Hero contributed," she said, and they did not speak again that night, for their mouths were too busy with over endeavors.


	3. Bug Ball

A short little oneshot. Enjoy.

* * *

When Zelda walked into the room, Link nearly fell over laughing.

He had seen her in the finest gowns, from swooping formal skirts to garden dresses; he had seen her in her nightgowns and in her bare skin, but he had never seen her quite like this before.

She was wearing an enormous hoop skirt covered in black and pink frills. It corseted tightly, making her waist look comically thin. Her normally silky, straight hair was curled into an enormous pompadour, and enchanted to bubblegum pink. From that pompadour, two sparkling black antennae arose, dangling over her forehead. In lieu of the train she normally favored, two enormous black-and-pink wings stuck out a good four feet horizontally and swept behind her. As she walked, pink fairy dust clouded around her. She did not wear her tiara but a crown of flowers instead.

Her face, normally devoid of makeup, was painted as well. Her eyes were lined in dark ochre and her lips painted shocking orchid-purple. She had glued-on lashes that brushed her hot pink cheeks.

She was a beautiful, pink, enormous, puffball butterfly.

One look at Link and she realized the mistake she'd made earlier that month.

_ "Sister!" Agitha stared into her sibling's eyes. The girl normally was sweet and innocent, but some of that royal family fire shone back at her. _

_ "I want to start a line of bug-themed clothes! I want a shop in the market!" She pulled out a thick sketchbook and shoved it across the table to the elder princess, who sighed._

_ "Agitha, you're awfully young to own a shop in Castle Town. Being royal doesn't mean people will buy your wares. We can't afford to spend money frivolously while we are rebuilding." Hyrule's economy had improved, but it still had some hurdles to overcome. _

_ The younger girl huffed._

_ "No, but having talent will! You haven't even looked at my designs. And the owner of Malo Mart was six when he started! That's a gap more than half my age! I'm fourteen"_

_ Zelda flipped open the sketchbook and was slightly surprised to see a rather wondrous collection of haute-couture ball gowns. They were glorious- all colors, with gemstone headpieces and layers upon layers of detail. She shouldn't be too shocked, though. Agitha had always had a passion for these sorts of things and was certainly an intelligent girl. After flipping through several of the designs, she looked up at her little sister._

_ It was strange to see her nowadays; she was so used to the slight blond kid in pigtails messily digging up snails in the garden. But now she'd begun to become a woman, small breasts budding behind her corset top, her lips getting fuller and her nose longer. She'd quit wearing her hair in high pigtails and instead wore them in intricate plaits; somehow, it made her look older. _

_ But after their parents died Zelda's attention had shifted away Agitha. It wasn't on purpose- Nayru knows she missed their days in the garden and sneaking chocolate from the kitchens- but running a kingdom was very difficult on a sixteen-year-old girl. So the child went from being enamored with insects to being obsessed with them. They crawled into her heart and filled the space that Zelda had left behind._

_ So she commissioned Agitha a little palace where she could have her creepy crawlies and her tutors could keep up her studies and she could stay if she wanted to. Though the little palace was but a thirty-minute walk from the castle, Agitha slowly came to live there, and did not see her sister very often. _

_ Zelda hated it._

_ So when those huge eyes begged for a purse for her business, she could not tell Agitha no. _

"I will-"

"I know, I know," chuckled Link, "you'll have me exiled." He reached down and picked at a ruffle. The tulle skirt alone must have weighed fifteen pounds..

Zelda stared at her lover. This was completely unfair. Agitha had given them a choice as to which bug they would be. Link wisely chose a grasshopper. She stupidly chose a butterfly, because they were the least creepy.

She should have gone as his lady grasshopper.

He was dressed all in shades of green. A shimmering emerald tunic hung below a lime-green waist piece and a dark hunter green belt. His wings were translucent and stuck out only a little behind him, mostly falling down his back. The only things vaguely ridiculous about his outfit were the antennae on his head- but everyone had those- and the slightly fuzzy brown pants on his legs. But even those were somewhat amazing, for when he walked, they emitted the most beautiful music, like a thousand little bells jingling. He could move considerably easier in his than she could in hers. His hair was slicked back and his face was painted with green lines, making it look longer and somehow regal. He looked positively beautiful.

The best she got was glittery pink fairy dust that kept choking her and a corset.

Link seemed to read her thoughts, as he so often did, and he chuckled.

"Don't worry, Princess. Should you fall into water and start to drown, I will happily cut all of your clothes off and save you. Should you trip on your petticoats, I will catch you before you fall."

She'd promised Agitha a Bug Ball to debut her clothing line, and by goddesses, she would get one.

! #$#%$^&^^%$%# #$%^%$#


	4. In the Dark it is Easy to Pretend

Can I be honest? This chapter is really more M-rated than T-rated. Yeah yeah. Don't kill me. It isn't terribly lemony or anything, it's just got some...er...drama. Just…read it.

It's dark.

Very, very dark.

Don't skip the short lyric at the beginning of the oneshot, either.

Enjoy!

* * *

**_Close your eyes, for your eyes will only tell the truth_**

**_And the truth isn't what you want to see_**

**_In the dark, it is easy to pretend_**

**_That the truth is what it ought to be_**

~From one of the original drafts of "The Music of the Night"

* * *

Link was mangled.

Death unfurled her warm blue hand and beckoned to him. He had smelled few things sweeter. She smelled like the grass and the flowers and cinnamon. She tasted like the pumpkin pecan candies he sneaked from Uli's counter-top when he was but a child, stuffing at least four in his mouth before finally sharing one with Ilia. She was saccharine.

But he could not die, for something far greater kept him alive.

* * *

"_I wish you weren't leaving," she said anxiously, twisting the fingers on her silken gloves._

_Link chuckled. "My dear, we've put this off for too long. There are only so many exceptions you can make for me! If I am to be a knight, I must go through the knight's training. You've already postponed it twice for my sake."_

"_Yes, but…" Zelda trailed off, her eyes wrought with worry and anger, because he was right. Her council voted on it, one-hundred percent. Even Link voted for it. _

_The council could overrule the princess if the vote was unanimous. These are the rules set forth __by the people; when a monarch comes to power before he or she is of age, the council holds some power.__To try to abolish them would only prove why the rule needed to exist in the first place. _

_She could not wait for her coronation as queen, where it would be much more difficult to tell her no._

_She looked into his eyes, wild as an ocean storm, and tears escaped her._

"_Now, now," he whispered, putting one gloved finger on her cheek, "you mustn't cry. It is only for two weeks! Let's be honest, they probably can't teach me very much there. It's simply a formality." The tears had begun flowing steadily, but quietly, onto his hand. He grasped her face in his hands, kissing from her chin and up to her eyelids, tasting the salt on his tongue._

"_I've spoiled you by being around too much lately. I'll give you a dose of Link before I go, though." He wrapped his arm around her and gently cupped her behind, and ground his hips __softly into hers. This elicited a laugh, a choking laugh, between the tears. She slapped him lightly on the chest._

"_We really can't hide it anymore, can we?"_

"_Nah. Did we ever really try?" She sniffled. No, they really hadn't tried to hide it at all._

_He just laughed, that deep melodic laugh that sounded like a gong, and swept her into__his__arms. _

"_I believe the Princess needs to retreat to her chambers," he said, carrying her up the stairs._

* * *

"I _knew _this was going to happen!" Zelda was screaming at her council, crimson-faced and livid. "I _felt it. _ As I warned you of the coming Twilight invasion! But no, you sent him off on this ridiculous _formality _ignoring what you should have known to be true as well."

The faces of her thirty council members were white and ashen. It was true. She'd warned them that war was coming to Hyrule, and they ignored it then, dismissing her as a little girl. And she'd warned them that something terrible would happen to Link this time, that there was _something_ wrong, even if she could not pinpoint it, and that he should go on the next rounds.

The sight of the Princess before them, emanating such power that they were sure she could have caused the entire room to collapse around them, terrified them to the core. In three months' time, she would be queen, and the council presence would shift from chaperon to simply a group of advisers; it would be cut from thirty to ten members of her choosing.

Or even if she'd wanted someone else entirely, she could choose them, too.

"Not a single one of you deserves to be here. _You have failed the man who saved us all_!"

With that sort of conviction, they weren't so sure she'd even need the ten.

One member spoke up.

"Princess, even the Hero himself voted to go. Even he went against your wishes."

"_That is because he is kind and tender and did not want the other soldiers to look down on him!"_Her voice was no longer screaming, but had gotten dangerously low. It was more terrifying than her yells.

"But if we wanted him to transcend the ranks of the military, as we spoke of-"

"For the love of the goddesses, he single-handedly saved our country and could probably slaughter half of our generals before anyone got a hit on him. Or do I need to remind you of the monsters he killed relying only on his wits and strength? And the very skills you insisted he go off and pretend to learn for the sake of a _formality_. "

No, she really didn't need to remind them.

"Your Highness." A voice cut through the tension in the council room. It was Shad, flanked closely by Ashei.

"He is here."

With one piercing glare, she hissed to her council:

"You should be ashamed of yourselves."

And they were.

* * *

"_I bless you with the love of __Nayru__," Zelda whispered to him in the dark, their legs intertwined, and her lips waltzing over his as she spoke._

"_Really, now. You're saying I didn't have it before?" His lips opened and his tongue tipped her own. She shuddered in pleasure._

"_Quit distracting me. I'm trying to grant you divine protection."_

"_I can think of a place I'd rather hide than under the goddess' wings."__He swept his hand down her slick back and onto her rear._

"_Will you STOP being so damn horny for just twenty seconds?" she hissed as he began to massage around her spine._

"_Nope," he hissed back, flipping her from his side__to__on top of him. It never ceased to amaze her how easily he could throw her around, as if she were a feather pillow. Her legs fell around his waist, straddling him. She felt the familiar fire of arousal light between her legs and his stiffness begin to slide into her. _

"_No. Wait a moment.," she said sternly, brushing his hair off of his sticky forehead. _

_He whined at her, bucking his hips up lightly. _

"_C'mon I'm _right there_, Zelda….." But her look silenced him, even in the darkness._

_She clasped her hands together and a white ball of light appeared._

"_Oh….you meant the protection thing literally," he whispered, and was suddenly much more reverent (but no less aroused.)_

"_Give me your hands." She spread her fingers and the sphere dispersed from one to ten small orbs of light on each finger. He matched his own to hers._

_The warmth flowed up his arms wonderfully, travelling directly to his heart and down his belly, all the way to his feet._

"_Oh. That feels so wonderful," he said softly._

"_I know. Now you will be protected from harm that comes to you."_

"_So I can't die, then. Yay!"_

"_No, you can still die. It'll just be much, much harder. Like some other things I can think of." She thrust her hips down, crashing him into her so hard, it knocked the breath out of him. _

_She didn't let him catch it for the rest of the night._

* * *

He was an unrecognizable corpse, mutilated and naked and bleeding on her bed.

He had burn marks from head to foot. His face swollen crimson and distorted. The parts of his skin that weren't blistering red were pallid, deathly white, as if the grim reaper tried to visit but then decided against at the last moment.

His lips had been split at the corners into a grotesque sort of smile, and his pert nose was smashed in. Of the scalp he had left, the maize-gold hair was falling out in patches onto her pillow. Both ears had been cut off, not in a merciful smooth motion but in jagged thrusts, as if someone enjoyed hacking them off with a rusty blade. His arms had vertical slices from the wrist to the underarm, deep and violent and so, so red.

There were likely more broken bones than whole ones, but the worse was his back. He'd lost all use of his legs and bladder and bowels, and was covered in filth. A dozen slashes marked his throat, as if someone tried to cut it and couldn't put enough pressure down.

Zelda did not flinch.

* * *

Besides the Hero, there were four people in the room.

One, the physician from the field. He was as young as Link, and for a moment, Zelda hated him for his youth and beauty; youth and beauty she may not be able to restore to her Hero. She pushed the bitterness out of her mind.

He had done what he could, sewed up what he could. He did well.

Zelda stared at him, a lioness ready to kill at the slightest wrong word.

"These deep cuts," the man said, waving his hand over them, "can't be sewn shut. They must be flushed. The infection is already so deep. But…" he averted his eyes, terrified by the Princess's ferocity, "he will die long before he recovers from it. Medicine can only do so much, Princess. Most would have died long, long before this. These cuts on his throat….they don't seem natural. The skin is cut all the way to the trachea…..yet he is still breathing. Magic saved him from death at first." His eyes finally met hers, filled with infinite sadness. "And it is your turn to try again. I tried, your Highness, I truly did…." He was beginning to cry.

Zelda tried to keep her voice as calm as possible.

"You have done well, doctor." She laid a hand on his trembling shoulder. "Do not weep. I will….I will do what I have to." The doctor took her hand.

"Do what you must, but…do not forget that Hyrule needs a ruler." His voice was so soft, she was sure Shad and Ashei could not hear him.

Then they were three, besides the hero, in the room. One dying.

"Shad. Let us begin." The scholar brought forth the small, ornate pot he was holding. It was decorated with ancient swirls and hieroglyphs that only he and the princess understood. He looked ready to vomit from the horrible sight in front of him. Zelda guessed that's why Ashei was here.

Even _she _looked shaken.

"I don't….understand…how he survived….." the scholar began, but Zelda cut him off.

"I blessed him with Nayru's love before he left, and his captors were apparently too stupid to know how to finish him off." Shad's eyes widened. He opened his mouth, then shut it again. _A wise move_. Ashei's brow furrowed, but she kept quiet as well. She likely had no idea what her princess was talking about.

Zelda dipped her hand into the pot, allowing its contents to run up her arms. Once she tasted it in her mouth, she knew it was time. She lifted her hands out, her arms glowing green light. Slowly, she sat next to Link on the bed. His eyes were so swollen, she could see no blue, and had no idea if he was conscious. But she would in a second.

Starting as his scalp, or what was left of it, anyway, she let her hands hover.

_A flesh wound. It will knit._

Her hands roved to his eyes.

_His eyes are still there. They are strong and blue, and beautiful. They will be all right. They will see again. _

To his nose. She counted how many pieces it was shattered into.

_Sixteen little shards. They will straighten._

His split lips.

_Infection. Deep infection. His face will be scarred._She was saddened at this, not sure why she expected it to _not _be scarred- _but he will still be the most handsome man the world has ever seen._

Out to his ears. She smiled wryly.

_Ears are one thing __Hylians __will always have. _

She'd give him a new earring when they healed.

Her hands descended to his neck. It was oozing infection.

Oh.

_He'll scar. He may not be able to speak __the same if __at all. But he will be able to breathe. _

His chest.

His chest was mutilated, chunks of flesh torn out by a flogger- probably a spiked cat o' nine tails- and the muscles were visible. She watched them expand and contract, expand and contract, as he inhaled and exhaled. The third-degree burns from the hot oil he'd been tortured with seemed to growl angrily at her. She let her hand hover over his heart.

_It's barely beating true. It's been stabbed. I can feel the cut._She counted the splinters of his sternum._Five pieces. How they must have beat him to try to kill him. How much he suffered. _

Her hands travelled down to his belly, and her calm comportment began to break. It was the part she'd most dreaded.

They tried to disembowel him, but they'd botched it. The field doctor had...placed everything back where it should have been. But the contents of them had spread into his blood and infection from that as well as the burns and cuts was so deep, she could practically see it coursing the few intact veins he had left. She remembered why she'd always preferred history to science.

_The goddess' protection, indeed..._

Her hands moved to his hips.

_He has three pelvic fractures. How is he still alive? But they'll knit. His spine is shattered. He has no feeling in his legs._The thought comforted her, slightly, to think that maybe he was in a little less pain.

_Four cracked vertebrae. The nerves are completely __servered__. Those...will be hard to fix. Will he walk again?_She stopped the train of thought before she panicked. _Steady. You will heal him. You will save him. _

He'd drifted out of his sleep and seemed to notice her near him. He tried to move a hand, then tried to scream in pain, except he couldn't. Only a hoarse cry of air came from his throat.

"Sshhhhhhh. Sssshhhhh. You will survive. I will save you. You will live. I am here. I love you so much," she told him. _I must work quicker, lest he suffer more._

_He will live._

_He will live in this dark. _

She ran her hands quickly down his legs, feeling every tendon and muscle that had been torn and stretched, running them over his ankles and broken toes, assessing everything she could, before she began to heal, hoping that she was strong enough to survive for him.

If not for her spell the night he left, he would have died long ago. And in a cruel twist of irony, it was her spell that was causing him pain now, for the sweet embrace of death must surely be preferable to _this_.

_I don't know if I have enough power to restore him. Or even save him._

_NO! He will live!_

Her head was beginning to spin. Everything was so _bad,_she could barely sort through her thoughts well enough to decide what should be healed first. She needed to start with the worst to make sure he would survive, but it all seemed equally terrible. And if he didn't have legs that worked...he may as well be dead. If she couldn't restore all of him, it was pointless. He would live with scars and pains but if he couldn't ride, if he couldn't fight, or be free...he'd be already dead.

_The blood. The spread__infection must be ebbed. The trauma to his spine must be fixed. His heart must be mended. His lungs will repair on their own. His skin will heal. But his blood must be cleaned, his spine must be fixed, his heart must be mended. If I clean his blood, then his heart, it will pump life back into him. Then his spine.__Blood, spine, heart. Cleaned, fixed, mended. Heart, blood, spine. Spine, heart, blood. Cleaned, fixed, mended. Cleaned. Fixed. Mended. _

"Take this, and live!"

And she plunged her hands into his chest, past the shattered sternum, until her fingers felt the very stab wounds of his heart, until the muscle melded to her fingertips, and his dirty blood flowed through her fingers into her own fresh pulse, until the weak throbs of his grew faster, catching up to her own, until the green on her arms ran through him, restoring life, mending veins and vessels and drawing her good blood into his bad blood. And she breathed, and breathed harder, until that good blood was all pushed into his newly-mended heart, and she felt hers rip, literally rip, into shreds.

She tasted his pus and blood on her mouth, covering her tongue in vileness, in evil, all metallic and dead skin, her stomach churning in nausea. She must not retch. _It is candy,_she told herself. _If I eat this candy, he will survive. It is sugar. It is delicious. It is medicine and it is sweet. _

She swallowed his death like it was hot healing broth; she swallowed it as though she could not survive without it. She took his pain as though it was her own and death shuddered through her veins.

And then she pulled her hands out of his heart and stared at them and heard a terrible sound. They'd turned putrid black and brown; she was sure that noise was her own voice. Shad and Ashei reached out and plunged her arms back into the ornate pot, and slowly, ever so slowly, Link's pain and death left her body, and she collapsed unconscious next to him, soaked in her own sweat and urine.

Had she been awake, she would have seen a very pale Ashei and a nearly vomiting Shad standing over her, both holding the pot on either side, both trembling.

"She is nowhere near done," Shad whispered to the black-haired warrior, and the only thing she could manage was a sickly nod.

* * *

"Hold him up! HOLD! HIM! UP!" Zelda was screaming at Shad and Ashei, her hands directly under Link's broken spine.

CCCCCCRRRRRAAAACCCCKKKKKKKK

CCCCCCCRRRRRAAAACCCCCCCCCKKKK

CCCCCCCCCCRRRRRAAAAAAAAAACCCCCCCKKKKKKKK

She snapped one, two, three, four bones back into place. She felt the nerve bundles tying back together, tying around her finger, and she felt her legs slowly go numb as his began to twitch. She closed her eyes. She would not fail him. She would. not. fail. HIM. Link. Her Link. He would live again.

* * *

Zelda stared at her handiwork.

He breathed.

He lived. He survived. He would walk.

The gashes on his arms had mostly closed, free of disease. They would heal.

His scalp was knitted back. He was bald, but his golden hair would grow again.

His eyes were bright and blue and beautiful. He would see again.

His throat was scarred, horribly, horribly scarred, but he would breathe. Maybe he'd never again sing in his flowing, beautiful tenor, but he would speak.

His nose. She'd fixed it. She'd mended it.

She wiped the sweat from her brow and stared into the healing pot.

It was full of that brown and murky black liquid, swirling ominously like death. Well, that was because it _was_death. Horrible, evil, terrible death. It smelled like vomit and foulness and every disgusting smell the human or divine body could ever produce.

She turned to Shad.

"Save it. Put a top on it. We still have much to do." His eyes widened, but Ashei's mouth set into a determined line.

"Yes, we do," the warrior said, and Zelda knew that justice would be properly served.

And the princess collapsed next to her sleeping lover, her body spent and her mind obliterated.


	5. The First Time

Heehee. Thank ya'll for the reviews on the earlier chappy. Perhaps we will get some answers in the future.

But what do we say to the god of answers?

Not today!

Enjoy.

* * *

The sound of the Mirror of Twilight breaking was the loudest sound Link had ever heard.

No. It was the silence afterwards. _That _was the loudest sound he'd ever heard. It pressed on his eardrums like the water at the bottom of Lake Hylia.

He felt the Princess' soft, cool hand slide down his wrist and into his own. He turned to face her, and when their eyes met, they both burst into tears. They sank to the ground, hands cupped tightly, and sobbed.

He'd never cried like this in his adult life. Even as a child, he really hadn't. He remembered, vaguely, crying like this when his parents died, but he was a toddler.

* * *

_It had been the best pumpkin crop in a decade, and the denizens of Ordon were ecstatic to deliver their goods to Lanayru Province. As Ralina and Jayru had orchestrated the entire season, implementing new fertilizer and irrigation regimes, they were given the honor of delivering the first shipment to Castle Towne. _

_ "Mama and Papa breen punkins to da cassle!," Link cooed happily._

_ "And little Linkie, too!" Ralina swung her two-year-old up into the air and kissed him on the nose. He'd taken after her with his enormous blue eyes and thick blonde hair. _

_ "Linkie! I wanna come with Linkie!" A lovely little green-eyed girl, about Link's age, piped up from Ralina's feet. She was jealous at Link's opportunity. _

_ "Next time, Little Ilia. We only have so much room on the cart! You don't need to be rolled over by a pumpkin!"_

_ Jayru called from the cart and Ralina carried her son over, and they began the four-day trek to Castle Towne. Normally, it was a shorter ride, but the large shipment made it take more time, and they wanted to make a delivery to Kakariko on the way home. _

* * *

They'd gone from holding hands to clutching each other on the filthy ground, Zelda's silken dress ruined by the grains of sand. _I should have known better than to wear this, _she thought to herself absently. She buried her face into the soft green fabric of Link's tunic, her hand grabbing for the back of his neck.

He rocked her back and forth, back and forth, their tears dripping from their cheeks and intermingling on the ground. It was a very long time before either managed to speak properly, and even then, it was breathless and torn.

"I…was catatonic when my heart joined with hers, but the memories flooded back the moment I awoke. The things that she went through on our descendant's behalf…on _my _behalf…Oh, Link, we would condemn our criminals to their lands! They lived in constant fear! We sent our murders, our rapists, our evil, evil people…" She sniffed.

"Did you know of the Twili's existence?" he asked, running a finger over the tangles in her hair.

"No! That is the worst part. We just _assumed_. We just _assumed_ that the Interlopers all died out. We sent them off instead of dealing with them ourselves….even I sent two off into that land. I sent two people off there, Link. What if they raped or murdered Twili children? Daughters? Sons? Like us? We used them as a sewer for the worst filth of our lands!"

Link sighed. He did not have the heart to reaffirm her suspicions. He remembered some of the stories Midna had shared with him. And he remembered the horror he'd felt when he heard them.

It was a terrible thing to do, indeed. But it wasn't completely her fault. It was probably integrated into her mind from a very young age as a fact of Hyrulean justice. The princess was wise and benevolent, yet still suffered from the naiveté of youth. She did a fine job in the year before the Twilight struck, and did her best to save her people when it did. It did not excuse the sins of the past, but it was forgivable if it never happened again.

Midna made sure it didn't.

* * *

_There was a child's table was laid out with a miniature porcelain tea set, sized perfectly for little hands. Three stuffed animals- a rabbit, a tiger, and a lamb- were sitting in wooden chairs around the table. Small scones, cucumber sandwiches, and fresh mint tea were being served by a beautiful little girl, about two years older, with sandy-brown hair and a delicate tiara._

_ "Hello!" Link told the pretty, poised child in front of him. She was dressed in a poufy purple dress with a white underskirt. _

"_Hello! My name is Zelda! This is Sir Bunny, Sir Stripes, and Sir Mutton. What is your name?"_

"_Link."_

"_Well, Sir Link, you should join us." So Link took the empty seat next to her, and she began to pour the tea. _

"_Cream and sugar?" she asked, her hand hovering over the tiny creamer. _

"_Um…"_

_ The king laughed._

_ "Ralina, your son is adorable. And he seems to be smitten with my girl! Perhaps they will be friends in the future. He's already sturdy, he'd make a fine knight, I'd wager."_

_ Ralina laughed delicately, her arm brushing the king's._

_ "Maybe one day he'll live up to his namesake, and rescue our Princess from innumerable perils."_

_ The king chuckled in return._

_ "Maybe one day he will be king. He technically has the birthright. Your humble life may hide your lines, but it could happen. On a technicality." He winked. "You should move to Castle Towne and raise him as the noble he is! Maybe you could live right outside of the Towne, and raise him as a half-noble." Ralina laughed again._

_ "I thought the Princess of Destiny abolished those technicalities long ago! Certainly he could marry your Princess if he so chose."_

_ "I have the feeling she would be the one making the decisions," he chuckled, gesturing to their children. Zelda had begun bossing Link around at her tea-table, making him sit pin-straight and trying to teach him to pour the tea delicately. _

_ "Your Majesty." Ralina and the king turned to the voice of Jayru. The Ordon man bowed to the king. _

_ "Please, Jayru, I have told you not to bow to me before! The husband of one of my dearest childhood friends does not need such formalities." _

_ Jayru eyes twinkled with a wild mischief. "Old habits die hard, you know. According to your guards, a peasant man like myself should spit-shine your shoes." The king sighed._

_ "Half of them are idiots. Hyrule is certainly lost for honorable knights."_

_ "That," Jayru agreed, "Is one thing I agree with."_

_ "SIR LINK!" Zelda's sharp little voice cut through the adult's conversation, fussing her newfound tea companion. The Ordon boy had dropped his bone china saucer and cracked it. He shrunk down under the table, terrified of the princess' wrath. She began jabbering at him that knights should be proper and well-behaved and that dropping the saucer was neither proper nor good behavior and she was going to tell her mother. _

_ The adults howled with laughter. _

* * *

It was when neither could bear Midna's lingering stardust-lemon scent that they decided to leave.

"We should be able to traverse most of the desert today, Princess. We'll camp at one of the oases tonight. It will be hot, but the night would be much harsher. Would you like to ride Epona and not walk?"

"I'm a princess, Link, but I'm not helpless."

"I didn't-" He sighed. "I won't feel right if I let a lady walk while I ride."

"Then I'll sit behind you."

Link slung himself onto his steed and held out a hand for Zelda. She took it and positioned herself behind him, her hands delicately circling his waist. His ears suddenly felt much warmer.

"Ready, Princess?" he asked.

"One thing, first."

"What's that?"

"Please call me Zelda."

He nodded in the affirmative.

"_HYAH!"_

* * *

_The empty pumpkin cart was ablaze and Jayru's body lay next to it, a flaming arrow sticking out of his chest. Their horses were dead and alight. The smell of flesh permeated the air._

_ "What do you want?!" Ralina cried, holding her hysterical son in her arms. Papa, papa, papa he cried. Somehow, at two-years-old and only recently off of the bottle, he knew his father was dead._

_ "Papa!"_

_ "We want you, Little Miss Noble Hylian," their attacker growled. "Grab the son! We'll sell him on the slave trade! And this pretty mama, too. Once we're done with her." His teeth gleamed a sickening yellow in the light of the flames._

_ But Ralina was not a damsel in distress and she would be damned if her son lost his life tonight. _

_ The gates of Kakariko were visible slightly in the distance, closed for the night. If she got Link over them, and told him to run in…..they wouldn't dare breach the Goron-protected village. He'd live. _

_ She took off running, the adrenaline pumping through her legs, superhuman strength taking her over and powering her away from what was most certainly her death. She felt a burning light in her hand and one, two, three fire arrows piercing through her legs. But there was no pain. No time for pain. Only time to save her son. The need possessed her. _

_ If she had survived, she wouldn't have remembered the run to those gates, or how she somehow jumped the ten-foot barricade, or how she wound up at the shaman's house, spurting blood from the arrows that had impaled her. All she would have remembered was the feel of her son's hot tears of fear on her breasts as she ran, and his cries for his Papa. _

_ As if she'd been there a million times before, she ran directly to the shaman's door and pounded loudly. She shoved her bawling son into his arms. The pain she hadn't felt suddenly rushed her all at once, and she collapsed instantly in death. The last thing she remembered was a shining golden emblem on her hand, three triangles with one particularly bright, blinding her as she fell to the ground._

_ The shaman watched the light leave her hand, and knew that she was dead._

* * *

They'd reached the oasis in decent time, before the night had gotten too cold. They were thankfully well-prepared. Midna had spent a day in Castle Towne before warping them to the Arbiter's Grounds, giving them time to pack for the trip home.

Hero and Princess quickly erected the tent, a charmed little establishment that looked tiny on the outside but opened into a lush, spacious interior.

"I wish I would have had this a few months ago," Link grumbled as he ducked into the flap. "Midna would have complained a lot less. I had to transform to a wolf and sleep like that half the time, because it was so cold."

Zelda sighed. "I would have gladly granted this to you had I been able. These tents are old magic and hard to find, but I would have located one for you. If you go on future endeavors, I'll make sure you have one." Link looked at the ceiling.

"Well, I admit that I'd miss the open sky and its beautiful stars."

"Certainly one of the better things of roughing it in the wild, I'm sure."

"Yes, certainly."

"Hero?" Zelda asked, shifting the subject.

"Yes?"

"You should avert your eyes. I need to change into bedclothes."

Link rolled his eyes and a wolfish grin crossed his face. Zelda gave him a (not very stern) warning look. He closed his eyes and tried not to peek as her heard her rustle.

"Done." He opened his eyes again. She'd changed into a loose, violet nightdress that brushed the ground.

He probably should get ready for bed, too.

Still smiling a little, he threw off his tunic and chainmail, standing in his white undershirt and tan pants. He saw her eyes widen, but pretended to ignore them.

"Goddesses. It's hot." He unbuckled his boots and slipped them off, then his socks, and stretched his toes out. Zelda had begun to attempt to distract herself by washing at the little basin (seriously, the tent had a basin? Where was this a month ago?), but it was fairly obvious where her vision actually was. That wouldn't do. Her attention _should_ be solely on him.

It was something he probably could have curbed, but his time as a wolf had brought out a rather …ah, _animalistic_ side. He didn't chase every feminine tail that came his way, but his awareness of the female species had heightened considerably in the last two years. Maybe it was a last little spurt of puberty. Maybe he was exhausted from the abysmal day and wanted some kind of humor. Maybe he was just horny. He really had no idea.

But whatever that desire was, it led him to reach into his pants and pull out his tucked-in shirt, yanking it over his head, so Zelda could stare even more. He moved over to the little washbasin, pouring some of his canteen water on a cloth and wiping his face off. He felt rather than saw Zelda freeze and stare, and tried not to chuckle.

A cool hand touched his back, dipping into one of his recently-healed scars, and he turned around.

The princess lifted her chin, staring into his eyes. He felt his stomach doing backflips from the beauty of the violet-blue. She ran her hand over his chest, lightly, touching each cut and bruise and scrape.

"You've done so very much for Hyrule, Hero. So very much." Her striking eyes were suddenly sad, and he didn't like that. So he put a finger under her chin and lifted her lips, brushing them lightly with his own. She stiffened at first but slowly relaxed. She did not deepen the kiss, but she returned it. He felt her hand catch lightly in his hair before she pulled away.

"We've had quite the day…" she murmured, her eyes still full of melancholy.

"Yes, we have," he whispered into her ear, pulling her back and nipping the tip with his teeth. Her lip began to quiver.

_She wants it, but is reserved. Where is the girl who was sobbing into my arms earlier? Why this wall? _

She burst into tears.

_ Oh. _There_ she is. _

"Hold me," she sobbed, burying her face into his bare skin. He scooped her up into his arms and led her over to his sleeping hammock. He sat, sticking one leg out, and rocked her back and forth. She smelled like salt and lavender. He ran his hands over her back, up and down, up and down, his own tears threatening to spill out yet again.

* * *

_It was the king himself who showed up to Ralina's parents house, in the middle of the night._

_ "Your Majesty! What are you doing here? And so late!"_

_ "Fleur. I….don't know how to say this. We should probably have Daro here, as well…"_

_ "Nonsense! What is it? Girl-" she snapped at one of the maids – "prepare tea immediately!" The maid curtsied and scurried off to the kitchen. The king tried not to get annoyed at how she talked to her servants._

_ "Fleur. It is about your daughter. Something has happened."_

_ "Oh, Meela? She was just here a few hours ago! She's fine."_

_ "No…your….other daughter."_

_ Fleur's mouth pressed into a stiff line and her cheeks went white. Her blue eyes, once filled with joy and innocence, had long lost their old fire. Marriage and age had not served her well._

_ "I have no other daughter."_

_ The king exhaled sharply. It was going to be a very long, very rough night. _

* * *

Link ran a hand up Zelda's dress, bypassing her rear and legs and placing it on her back. It was bold, but she made no protest when he slid her sleepdress over her head, her hair splaying out onto his shoulders. He didn't know why the compulsion overcame him or why she was even letting him; it as instinctual as when he hunted or tracked as a wolf. Something he couldn't quite understand; something deep about the skin-on-skin comfort. He'd learned from Midna, actually, though those situations were never as suggestive as this

_He remembered her little blue figure curling up and sleeping on his bare chest, her Fused Shadow helmet that she never took off poking too close to his eyes for comfort. He remembered her warmth and her lemon-stardust scent. He remembered her sweet, tender voice singing lullabies gently to soothe away the nightmares of death that constantly plagued him. Now, the Twili had to get pretty delirious from sleep deprivation to begin singing to him, but when she did, it was beautiful, and probably the only times he could truly rest._

Still rocking the Princess back and forth, feeling the warmth from her skin merge with his own, he began to sing a song that Midna once taught him.

_Deep in the twilight_

_A gold wolf-boy sleeps_

_Deep in the castles_

_A warrior leaps_

_And deep in the twilight_

_A gold wolf-boy dreams_

_While deep in the castle_

_ A soft princess beams_

Zelda looked up at him as he sang. A small smirk crossed her face.

"That really doesn't make much sense, you know," she whispered, her lips very close to his.

"Well, you didn't let me finish the song. In the end the princess and the wolf-boy fall in love and rule the world."

"I think you made that up and you're trying to get into my pants."

"I did not. And you aren't even wearing pants."

"Link?" she asked, and he recognized her tone as the one she always changed the subject with.

"Yes?"

"It's over, isn't it?"

It seemed as though the ground was rushing up at him when he answered.

"Yes. Yes, baby, it's over. It's really over."

"Really really over?"

"Really really really over."

"Link?" That tone again.

"Yes?"

"Will you make love to me before we go back home?"

Well, there went his stomach through his butt.

Before he could answer, her mouth crashed hard into his, her tongue running along the bottom of his mouth. The gently simmering desire he'd been feeling since they started lying there roared into a full-blown fire.

* * *

Making love that first time felt exactly the same as crying. It was like one long wail of emotion to the moon, when their bodies and voices sang choruses that lovers had written long before. He'd panted more in the hours until sunrise than he did his entire time as a wolf.

She would cry his name or call him baby, her voice breathless and raggedy, her silky hair falling in front of her eyes and sticking to her wet mouth, her hot tears pooling onto his chest. She' beg for him to tell her that it was over, to call her name, to touch her and hold her and squeeze her and a thousand other demands or requests, and he acquiesced to each one hungrily. Her let her keep the pace, watching her hips undulate as she swirled them slowly on top of him, letting him feel every inch inside of her, letting his hands roam freely over her figure. She would kiss the front of his neck and his head would roll back from pleasure. She made love desperately, viciously, sadly; it was like every thrust of her hips would push another terrible thought from her mind. Finally, she released, lost and drowning in his sapphire eyes and the sound of her name on his lips.

* * *

"I have no idea why I did that." The princess snuggled back into Link's chest. They were both stretched out on the hammock, laying under a thick blanket.

"Well...sometimes…sometimes your instincts just take over, I think. And I think it's a good thing. And perhaps you needed the release, and…well…"

"I got it?"

"Yeah, we, uh, both did…" He lightly traced a finger over her shoulder and she sighed.

"I have no idea what we are going to do when we get home. I feel like a child, working off of base desires and emotions….."

"Sometimes those are good things to work off of."

"And sometimes they are bad." She lifted her head up and stared into her new lover's eyes.

"Do you think this was bad?" He asked her, praying she would say no, it wasn't, and _they could continue it when they got back to the kingdom and that she'd marry him and love him and seven billion other emotions-_

"No, I don't…"

"But?"

A sad smile crossed her lips.

"But nothing that matters while we are here. " She nestled back down into his chest, but he could not shake the feeling that things would be much, much different.

"Well, Princess, you shouldn't look before you leap."

He pulled her in for another kiss.


	6. Ordona

The reviews for the last chapter were wonderful. I really appreciated them. Thank you so much to **Generala** and **sippurp123** in particular- I always look forward to your reviews and PMs. I'm glad we're friends.

This chapter is emotional and heavy, though not dark. I do promise a lot of romance and fluff in the future though.

* * *

_Age had not dulled the Queen-formerly-known-as-Princess-of-Destiny's beauty. Her cheeks were white like milk and the lines around her eyes were deeper, but with defiance and laughter rather than the exhaustion that plagued so many women. She wore ferocity for eye-ochre and mutiny for lipstick. Her proposal would pass, and it would pass today._

_Her crown was a delicate thing that was more of a headband, really, with thin silver vines that scrolled into jade-and-emerald leaves, and little clusters of gemstone flowers. Ruby and topaz, lapis and sapphire, amethyst and peridot and tourmaline and alexandrite and every other stone the jeweler carried. It was rainbow-sparkling but elegant, stunning but simple, much like the queen herself. That was why Link purchased it, anyway, saving up seven month's wages to have it made. She couldn't wear his wedding band so she wore his crown, simultaneously symbolic of the things that chained them and the rebellion she was igniting._

_"The women of the Royal Family are cursed with a most terrible affliction: Great fertility but terrible pregnancies and births. For as long as our history has been written, so many noble marriages have fallen apart. When it was important for male heirs to be produced, few if any would be, leading to the barbaric slaughter of noble daughter after noble daughter. When they were, it would be after a dozen miscarriages in two years, their bodies weakened by constant suffering. We have been marred by suicidal kings that threw themselves from their balconies, because their kingdom was going to be inherited by a most terrible nephew who would surely run everything into the dirt. We are too purely ill, and sickness begets sickness._

_"You shift in discomfort at these words-"she spat out, the disgust beginning to creep into her tone- "but I lost my own first child because of this foolishness. I wallowed in my own blood and death for a month before he passed. We claim to be a modern people, one who embraces our women as well as men, and yet these archaic rules still define us!_

_"We must consort with the healthy if we wish to continue. It is desperate. Any farmer knows that inbreeding their cattle eventually leads to weaker offspring; the same principle must be applied here. We say we are no better, but marrying too far above or too far below our station in life is punishable by death? We are hypocrites and we should be ashamed of our actions!"_

_The congregation began to chatter angrily._

_The Hero of Time, sitting to the Queen's left, was dressed in a fine green tunic and a swooping white cape embroidered with leaves. He supposed it was to show that even those with humble beginnings could ascend to greatness. He suppressed a snicker at the Queen's speech. It was justlike her to compare nobles to livestock, an insult they'd most certainly catch, but would later forgive. There was her true power- to skewer her enemies and have them die smiling._

_That wretched woman, he thought._

_She turned and met his eyes only briefly, an indulgence in these situations for her. Her placid stoicism was hysterical; for he knew her inner girl was screaming and bouncing from heel to heel._

_It occurred to him for the millionth time that day, that he would follow his queen anywhere._

* * *

Zelda stared at her blood-soaked underwear, a sob catching in her throat but not quite managing to make it out.

So busy she had been, she had not noticed that her monthlies had stopped coming. Plus, wasn't stress supposed to stop those, anyway? Certainly, she was stressed, hearing demand after demand and name after name of dead citizens. She was planning to travel soon, despite the fact that Hyrule was in the clutches of winter; she wanted to see each family, to deliver a small purse and her helping hand to everyone who had lost a loved one.

* * *

_When the Hero of Twilight and the Princess rode into Castle Towne, few eyebrows were raised at how she sat in front of him, her legs slung over the horse like a man's, his arms snaked tightly around her waist and his face buried into her chestnut hair. Most were too occupied that their benevolent ruler, as kind as she was beautiful, was finally back to restore order and peace._

_But the villagers of Ordon- more attuned to Link's personal mannerisms- noticed his stern protectiveness, and knew that their relationship had extended far past formal duty._

* * *

When the terrible cramps overcame her and the blood began to gush, the neglect she'd given her own body for the last four months came rushing back. The lack of proper meals, the late nights of paperwork and letters and council meetings, the mothers and fathers and widows and orphans that came to her, telling her the color of their daughter's hair or their husband's pet names or how they planned to have a baby shortly before their death or a thousand other things she could barely shoulder...it weighed on her like anvils, ruining her shoulders to the point where she could barely hold her head.

This wasn't a monthly. This was more. And when one particularly wrenching cramp seized her and she saw what came out, she broke. Her voice was screaming and incomprehensible, calling for her handmaidens and the doctor and for the father of the child she had been unable to carry, the father of the child she killed with her negligence.

* * *

Link sat down on the hill and sighed. The goats had been ornery that day and it'd taken an extra hour to get them out of the barn. He pulled out his sketchpad and pencils and stared at his surroundings, looking for something inspiring to draw.

At one time he'd found inspiration in the scenery around him; the lemondrop sun and the cherry-blue skies, the blades of grass and the shining beetles that flew off of them, the goats themselves with their gray-blue fur and tan bellies. But nothing moved him, or did much of anything.

It'd been a feeling he'd had since he returned to Ordon, this feeling of _nothing. _The first few days were peaceful, wonderful. He told himself he would relish these feelings, this quiet time, before leaving to help rebuild in Hyrule Proper, but he found himself drifting on a minute-by-minute basis. He shivered, pulling his cloak tighter.

He decided that he would sketch randomly, based on the first color he picked up. So he closed his eyes and grabbed one. Powder-blue.

"_Really?" _he groaned to himself, but put the pencil to the pad anyway.

It was Midna who flew from his fingertips, in her imp form first; the blue pot-belly and Fused Shadow helmet, bright yellow eyes and snaggletooth. Then it turned into the true Twilight Princess, all beauty and legs and serenity, sitting on the throne he'd visited only briefly, surrounded by geometric black squares and hazy orange skies. His fingers quickly gave way to another princess, as if in a trance, this one surrounded by hazy yellow spirit animals, with violet eyes and chestnut hair. _She_ was as beautiful as the first, a lithe creature of the light and sky.

He wouldn't bring herself to think _her_ name. He_ missed_ this princess dreadfully. So much so his heart pounded in his throat and his mouth when dry when he looked at _her_ representation.

When he picked up the mint-green pencil and tried to draw Ilia, the familiar lines faltered. He'd drawn her several times before, yet his hands just didn't seem to work. He hung his head and slammed the sketchpad shut in shame.

Suddenly, a familiar voice rang through his thoughts.

"Heeeeeeeeeeeyyy! Mister Link!"

Oh, no.

But there the Postman was, in all of his white hot-pants glory, odd red hat bouncing up and down, an envelope in his outstretched hand.

"From the Princess herself, Mister Link! With her personal stamp and seal!" He shoved the letter into Link's hand.

"Well, I am off to mail!" Link had already torn open the letter.

As he read the contents, the blood drained from his face and his breath stopped. His mouth was dry with fear.

"No. No no no no no no no…"

Sketchpad and pencils forgotten, he slung a leg over Epona and rode straight out of Ordon Village, Fado yelling at him that the goats weren't done. Epona had enough goat jerky and empty bottles in her saddles to get him to Lanayru if they rode straight. His sword, shield, and other gear were already there.

Having her saddle packed was a habit he hadn't managed to get out of.

But he spurred her on; digging his heels so hard into her flanks he was sure she was angry at him. Towards _her_. Zelda.

* * *

Ilia picked up the sketchpad. She didn't mean to open it, but open it fell where he'd left a pencil sandwiched between the pages. _Careless, just like him, _she thought.

A beautiful woman, in some kind of black tribal garb, all red eyes and blue skin, stared back at her.

_Who _is_ this? _She thought. _Did he meet this woman on his travels?_ She must have been important to him, if he drew her. He only drew things that moved him. Ilia knew she shouldn't flip the pages, even though he'd shown her this sketchpad hundreds of times before, but something possessed her.

The next page was the Princess Zelda, and the girl gasped. His artwork had always been excellent, with a keen eye for detail and sharp lines, but this drawing was an entirely new level. It was as if he'd spent a lifetime studying every aspect of Zelda's form and face, memorizing every curve of her eyes and lips and figure. Her silken hair flew from around her face and her eyes were the most mesmerizing shade of violet, lined with a thick lashline; Ilia was sure that he'd counted each lash and memorized their number before drawing them. It was equal parts methodical and mythical, abstract and true-to-form, encompassing all sides of his talent in a way she had never seen before. The Princess was surrounded by four magnificent mottled creatures of gold- a goat, a monkey, an owl, and a snake. She held an ornate bow with patterns that matched the creatures' and a quiver of yellow arrows.

It was the most beautiful piece of art Ilia had ever seen, and yet, it made her feel so very uneasy. She flipped the page. And threw the sketchpad to the ground, running off in tears.

* * *

Link had pushed Epona too hard. The poor horse was mad at him. He needed to bring her to one of the springs- Lanayru would most certainly heal her up nicely- but he couldn't do it right now. He just couldn't.

When he tore into the royal stables he barked at the poor stablehand to bathe her in hot springwater, then grabbed the Princess' letter and his clawshots. The guards at the front of the castle really should have asked what his business was, but they were too frightened of the hell-bent Hero flying through the doors.

His feet moved with a knowledge he didn't know existed and wound up right at the bedchambers of the Princess. He slammed on the door and yelled.

"_ZELDA! ZELDA, I'M HERE_!" He kept banging until a chambermaid finally opened the heavy door, nearly punching the poor girl in the face. He hastily apologized before barreling her over, jumping over furniture until he found himself at the foot of the Princess' bed.

She was pale; her hair was tangled and tied back by a handkerchief, her elegant nightgown soaked with sweat. Still, she managed a small smile at him.

"I'm glad you're here, Link," she whispered, opening her arms in an invitation. So in he crawled, two-day-old clothes and filthy boots and all, into her bed. He tried to do it delicately but all of his acquired grace seemed to have left his limbs. She didn't seem to mind, and sank softly into his arms.

"_You smell,"_ she joked, burying her face further into his shirt.

* * *

"Let's give you a bath," he said gently.

"You need one far more than I do. Did you ride straight here? Epona will kill you for that."

"Yes, yes, I know. I nearly decapitated some poor stablehand with orders when I walked in."

_The doctor had explained the situation well- the princess would be all right. She hadn't even realized she was pregnant until she lost the child. Stress can do odd things to a woman's cycles and she'd only gained a marginal amount of weight, anyway, probably due to not eating properly. A week or two of rest and healing for her body and she would be just fine….physically, anyway. _

Gingerly, Link picked her up and carried her to her bath. She began to untie her hair, letting the sweaty tangles fall. He softly undid the back of her nightgown, running a hand tenderly over the skin of her back, and kissed her neck. He was intensely grateful that his lust seemed to have run out for the time being; that would have been ridiculously inappropriate if not downright horrific.

He bent over and began to run warm water into the tub. Zelda pulled out a few bottles and poured them under the stream. Link watched her. She wasn't helpless, but she _was_ very weak.

According to the doctor, she'd lost a lot of blood. The thought made Link's heart rip in two. _It's my fault, _he thought guiltily. He shouldn't have seduced her like that. It was his fault. All his fault. The princess sank into the water and looked at him expectantly.

Oh. She really did mean for him to take a bath, too.

So he pulled off his ghastly work clothes and sank down next to her. The water was far warmer than he'd get in Ordon, sinking into his sore muscles like a gift from the goddesses. The princess poured some soap onto a soft washcloth and began to scrub away at the grime that had accumulated; he laid his head on the side of the tub and closed his eyes, enjoying the feeling. Under the water, he let his hand drift tenderly to her thigh, stroking it to comfort her.

"I'm so sorry I couldn't have her, Link," she said, her voice soft and full of sorrow. His eyes flew open.

"So it was a girl, then?" he asked, bringing his thumb to her cheek.

"Yes. I…saw her…for a moment at least. They took her away right after…." The tears had begun to flow quietly from the princess' eyes, "…and they told me that they were going to cremate her and give me her ashes…... I should have made sure that they did…" Hysterical sobs were choking out of her now. "What if they just threw her away like rotten meat? What if they fed her to a dog or what if she feels it when they burn her or….

"Oh no no no. No no. Don't you start thinking like that. You know that they kept their word. Everyone around you is devastated, too, Zellie. They'll make sure she is taken care of. She is at peace. They can't hurt her at all…" Zelda's nails dug into his chest as she wept, and finally his own tears began to flow, until he was bawling at a level equal to hers.

There they sat, until the water was cold and their digits shriveled like prunes, and for the second time in his life Link understood the devastation of lost potential.

* * *

They were only slightly aware of the entire town of Ordon watching them from afar, alight with curiosity as to why the Princess of Hyrule and their resident herder were standing on the hill overlooking the goat pastures looking equally forlorn.

"We should name her Lanayru," he offered, and Zelda shook her head.

"No. Ordona. After the land of her father, after the beautiful grass and woods she was born from, after the light spirit that housed and raised the most wonderful Hero that Hyrule has ever seen."

Ordona it was, then. The princess took Link's hand. Together, they released the ashes, and watched as their daughter swirled into the sky, free of a world she'd never had the chance to know.

* * *

Rusl shifted his eyes from Link to Zelda. The Hero and Princess embraced, burying themselves into the others' shoulders. He looked beyond them to the sky.

He was sure he heard a most beautiful song and saw a most divine golden goat-spirit dancing with a whirl of gray-black; tears stung his eyes like hornets as realization hit him so very, very hard. _Go on, then. _he thought. _Go on and go home. _


	7. Much Like Love and Time Travel

A few notes:

Within the next few chapters, I'm going to flesh out the relationship between Ilia and Link. Though they are not romantically involved, Link does love Ilia deeply. However, it's my belief that after the events of TP, staying in Ordon wasn't enough. So, that's coming.

I was hesitant to put up the last chapter because sometimes topics like child loss are very touchy, and are often mishandled. However, it is realistic- she was pregnant, but the stress was far too much for her to be able to carry the child to term at the time. Thank you for not ripping me a new butthole, dear readers!

Please please please if you notice any errors, lemme know! This includes repetitive words, etc. Sometimes I get ahead of myself.

**I wouldn't mind a beta reader, if someone wants to take up that lovely task, lol. **

**sippurp123- **thanks for your reviews, I always look forward to them.

**Watchfuldreamer**- I go through the exact same thing. THE EXACT SAME THING.

**MasterIckolas Xaron**- I aim to hit manly men in their guts. That's like, the ultimate complement bwahahahahaha.

**Imagination that**- I'm glad you liked the chapters! Questions will be answered as time goes on.

**Wildgirl404**- thank you so much. I really appreciate it.

**Generala**- teehee as I said earlier, I'll be fleshing out some Ilia/Link-ness in a bit. I think you'll approve of the upcoming chapters.

And now….what everyone has been waiting for…..ROMANTIC STUFF.

Okay okay, I'm trying to keep it relatively sophisticated romantic stuff with complexities and whatnot, but…..romantic stuff, here we go.

* * *

The engagement between the Princess of Hyrule and the Hero of Twilight lasted much longer than six months. In fact, it lasted four years; four long years where their minds were far too concerned with other things than planning a wedding.

Staring contemptuously at the dozens of mannequins in front of her, each a perfect demonstration of her measurements and height, Zelda wished she could postpone it another twenty, instead of a week.

For on each of these mannequins hung a wedding dress sent from some haute-couture house or other, or from some princess or dignitary or other; when she looked at them she did not see dozens of beautiful white gowns, she saw dozens of opportunities to piss someone off if she didn't wear their dress.

Why couldn't their wedding be a simple Ordonian ceremony, where the bride just wore her best frock in whatever color she had, where the village and perhaps some from nearby attended, where there was pumpkin beer galore, happy children running around, and joyful dancing in the dirt? Where the bride and groom went back to the house they'd built together, consummating their marriage without seven million people wondering when they were going to produce an heir, and the next day they went back to work like normal citizens?

No, _this_ foolishness would include wearing a veil and a pristine white dress (she snorted, for she had long lost her purity to her bridegroom) and spending more time pacifying dignitaries than actually enjoying the presence of her newly-minted husband. This was spent watching rich men too haughty for their own good get drunk and hit on poor girls of lesser stature, promising glory and riches if they would just _bend over a little more_.

Zelda shook the thoughts from her head. She was far too cynical.

She looked into the large mirror, catching the eyes of her five handmaidens over her shoulder. They stood serene and placid, trying to hide their happiness at being selected to help pick out _the_ royal wedding dress. Zelda was sure that each had their own ideas of what she should wear.

_Mental note, _she thought, _offer some of these ridiculous dresses to them. _

Finally, huffing in a most indignant and unladylike manner, she closed her eyes, spun around with her arm outstretched and finger pointed, and landed on a confection so fluffy she was sure she'd look like a pastry.

"That one is as good as any," she sighed, and her handmaidens rushed forward in a flurry of excitement.

It took twenty minutes to get her into the stupid thing. The skirt was gigantic, rivalling Agitha's bug-gowns in girth and weight, but without the wings. Speaking of, Agitha was _supposed _to send a dress her way, but the princess was rather terrified to see what her brilliant-but-odd sister would cook up. One of her handmaidens, Bertha, announced her finished and clapped her hands in excitement.

"Turn around, Majesty!" she said in a singsong voice. Zelda acquiesced and immediately regretted it.

The thing had whorls and swirls that looked like a tulle tornado in the skirt; white rosettes dug into her armpits and the bodice was so tight she could barely breathe. She looked positively _ridiculous. _Was this was little girls were supposed to want to wear growing up? It looked like a hideous costume. At least Agitha's creations were innovative; this was just revolting.

"Would you like a veil, Majesty?" another handmaiden, named Leera, asked her.

"No. This is absurd. The royal baker may as well just pipe frosting all over my naked body." So out of the ridiculous dress Zelda came.

"Perhaps something a touch more simple?" Bertha asked, and the queen nodded. _A touch? Try an entire lovemaking session more simple._

The next dress was simpler but wasn't much better, nor the next, nor the next. Zelda was on the verge of tears- not because she cared about the damn thing, but because she was utterly exhausted from being poked, prodded, stuffed, and basically manhandled into these downright painful gowns. She'd finally hit upon one she sort of liked- it was A-line, rather poofy, but not _unbearably_ so, and didn't dig into the flesh on her arms like a scalpel blade- when she heard the softest of _thumps_ on the windowsill behind her. The handmaidens were too busy trying to convince her that she was the most beautiful woman in all the lands (thinking that her frustration was out of insecurity, if only they _knew how annoying it was to be called that_), to hear the slowly receding chain into what was most certainly a clawshot.

_Oh he is _not _crashing this party, _she hissed internally. But lo and behold, yes. Yes _he_ was.

"Out! Out with the lot of you!" She clapped her hands at her maidens; they scurried, red-faced at the uncharacteristic outburst, terrified that they had done something wrong. When the door closed behind them, the room was silent except for a very soft chuckle.

"My, my. You look like the wedding cake," the voice said. Zelda stormed around two of the mannequins to the only window in the room, and there he sat in all of his rough-and-tumble glory, facing nonchalantly to the side.

The sun streamed through, illuminating his silhouette and making him look downright divine. One leg dangled off of the sill, clad in a slim-fitting khaki pant that clung to his stupidly muscled thigh. He wasn't wearing his green garb, only a sleeveless white tunic with tied with an orange belt. His hair shimmered gloriously gold in the sunbeams. He cocked his head to face her a little better, resting the side of his tanned forehead against the wall, and those goddess-damned blue were so bright with tenderness she felt her heart stop completely. She only came back to reality when she felt the saliva pooling in her cheeks threaten to spill out. Four years since they'd become lovers. Four stupid years and he still reduced her to a drooling imbecile. _Literally drooling. _

Thankfully, he hadn't caught it, because she would have never lived it down.

She took a step forward, trying to find some witty retort to his cake comment, still mesmerized by how downright beautiful he looked in the sunlight, when her heel caught on her front petticoat. She heard the rip and felt herself tumbling, barely aware of her arms flying forward out of reflex. But rather than being caught by the floor she found herself in his arms, staring up into those sapphire pools. She shut her mouth lest she start drooling again.

"You're a jerk," was all she managed, and his face lit up into that boyish, lopsided grin that made her forget to breathe.

"Well, then I guess you don't want the presents I got for you," he replied, and Zelda finally noticed a very long brown paper bag tied to his shoulders and a smaller one tied to his belt. He untied both and laid them down on a corner desk. Overcome by curiosity, Zelda followed him as best as she could before tripping again. This time, he simply swooped into his arms and sat her down next to the desk.

As she reached her hand out to open the larger package, he cocked his head.

"What?" she asked.

"Don't you want to know the story behind these things?" She sighed. Of _course_ there was a story. She fiddled with her engagement ring- a beautiful, simple thing he'd gotten her, lovely white-gold with etchings and a few tiny pink sapphires- and looked at him expectantly.

"Are you sure you're comfortable in that dress? This may take awhile."

She sighed. He took that as an affirmative, and began his story.

* * *

_A few hundred years ago….._

_ The Queen of Destiny had spent her entire life surrounded by men, but never ruled by them. It was something she prided herself on- her ability to stand on her own two feet, strong and unyielding. _

_ Link, for the most part, was respectful of this, and rarely tried to tell her what to do. She wouldn't have listened anyway, all it would have done was make her angry, so he kept his comments limited to small suggestions or shut his mouth all together._

_ Today was an exception to that rule._

_ "Zelda. You cannot stop him. He wants to go, and there is absolutely no way you can change his mind."_

_ The queen looked at her lover, the _one_ man who she possibly could have allowed to be king, and glared with ferocity so great he visibly recoiled._

_ "You'll throw our son's life away so easily? As if it was nothing to you?" she hissed._

_ "Of course not!" Link cried. "Of _course_ not! But Zelda, he is the damn captain of The Travelling Guard! If you pull him out it will be a diplomatic crisis! Labrynna wants him specifically! They need him. That's why he became joined the branch to begin with, to travel and help people in need! And what of the hundred beneath him, looking to him for leadership! What would you have them do, if their beloved leader left?"_

_ "WHAT WOULD YOU HAVE ME DO, LINK, IF MY BELOVED SON DIED IN BATTLE?!" she roared back at him, so loudly he was sure they would be heard. _

_ The civil war in Labrynna had become an abysmal source of bloodshed; thousands of their citizens dead and their military exhausted. Few people tried to overtake the small country. They were productive, peaceful people who did nothing but trade and spread goodwill. Hyrule was not a country that meddled too much in the affairs of these other lands but so many had died, it was becoming crucial. The Travelling Guard, a ferocious branch of the military made entirely for the purpose of assisting other countries in times of crises, was needed. And her oldest son- her beautiful son, who'd just turned twenty-five and was the youngest captain ever to be named, followed with fervent faithfulness by his soldiers- was obliged by the oaths he took to help protect Hyrule's troubled sister. _

_ All of these facts occurred to the Queen. Multiple times, in fact._

_ But when the mangled body of a seven-year-old girl, sliced open and clearly raped multiple times, was placed at her feet in her formal throne room, it took every ounce of self-control she'd ever drilled into herself to not lock him into the dungeons. _

_ After that, the stories began to pour in- it was a group of religious fanatics who did not just pillage and burn small towns. They castrated the men but saved the true horrors for the women, of all ages, from newborn to elderly. They would tie them up alive to be debased like animals, gagging them with rocks or their spears, leaving them to die and rot in the sun. They were brilliant, brutal strategists and too far spread for the Labrynnish army to control properly. The country desperately needed help. _

_ They desperately needed her son, her sunshine son, her beautiful, perfect, vivid son who reflected his father like a mirror. _

_ The queen sat down and slumped in her chair, and for the first time in many years, tears flowed from her like a most violent river. For she knew, deep down in her soul, that if he left, he would be killed. The goddesses nearly whispered it into her ears as she slept. _

* * *

Link stared at the queen, trying to keep his smile hidden. She looked beautiful in this wedding dress, though it didn't suit her. He wondered exactly how much of this tale he really should divulge.

He reached into his knapsack and pulled out a journal. Zelda yelped indignantly.

"You stole the journal of the Hero!" It wasn't a question.

"Yes," he smirked, thumbing to a page he had dog-eared.

"You DOG-EARED A PAGE IN A HISTORICAL RELIC! THIS IS WHY BOOKMARKS WERE INVENTED, LINK!" she hollered. He winced.

"Okay, okay, you got me there. Just….listen for a minute." Zelda rolled her eyes.

"I've read them more times than I can count. There is nothing new in there for me."

"Even the last pages?"

"Those are in Kokiri! No one can read them."

"Wrong."

Zelda stared.

"I bed your pardon?"

"I can read Kokiri."

"No…no, you can't. It isn't just a lost language, Link, it's an enchanted lost language! It's impossible to learn unless you happen to _know a Kokiri to begin with. _And they're all dead._"_

He grinned a most evil, mysterious grin.

"Well, I don't know any Kokiri. But I do happen to know a guy who was raised by them."

"The last person to be opened accepted by the Kokiri was…." She stopped. "But you know this already. What, did you travel back in time to meet the Hero?"

"As a matter of fact, I did."

"Oh, really, then? Pray tell, what do these last pages detail?"

"Why, they detail the death of the Queen of Destiny."

Again Zelda stared, disbelieving.

"You're full of it."

"Nope," Link said, still grinning from ear to ear. "I happen to know the Hero of Time quite well. I went on a little trip to talk to him. It was a bit of a pain, actually."

Zelda propped her elbows onto the desktop and let her head sink into her hands.

"Just….come out with it, then," she near-moaned, sure she was going to regret this entire experience.

"Well, as you know, how the Queen of Destiny died has been a mystery for quite some time…."

* * *

_The man sat in the windowsill of the Temple of Time, whistling whimsical melodies out of his blue ocarina, one leg dangling down from the sill. It was clad in tough ivory pants, and as he blew each note out of his instrument, the muscles flexed. Twilight let his eyes travel up to the green tunic, so alike to the one he had worn on his own quest, to the golden hair shaded similarly to his own, to the pointed ears, and floppy green hat. He smirked a little at the man's stance; he'd often sit on windowsills in a most similar fashion._

_ "Hello," he called out, and the music stopped. The man looked down._

_ "Hello, child," he said, letting his arms drop, ocarina still in one hand. "Fancy seeing you here."_

_ "Oh, you know. I just wanted advice from my most esteemed great-great-great-great-whatever-you-are grandfather."_

_ "Hmmm." The Hero of Time dropped down from the window and landed gracefully on the floor like a cat._

_ "Yes, I am indeed more catlike than you, and your wolfish tendencies." Twilight cocked his head to the side._

_ "You can read my-"_

_ "When you broadcast them like that, yes. You should keep your thoughts a little more guarded."_

_ "So, then you know why I am here."_

_ "I don't," Time said, "but I am sure of someone who does." Twilight heard soft footsteps behind him and whirled around._

_ Out stepped a woman most lovely, with long, long golden hair and blue eyes. She was dressed in Sheikah garb but did not cover her face as so many depictions showed. He dropped to one knee and kissed her outstretched hand._

_ She touched his head lightly._

_ "Rise, child," she said. He rose, but did not let go of her hand. Instead, he kissed it again._

_ "She looks much like you. You are as beautiful as the legends told."_

_ "Easy now, child," warned the Hero of Time. "She's mine; you have your own Zelda to attend to." The queen laughed._

_ "Down, boy. And you say you aren't a dog. No, this is a child who lost his mother long ago." She tilted her head and regarded the Hero of Twilight. "I must say, Link, he inherited your looks. But I do see those hints of Malon's coloring, even after all these generations. Look at how the blonde shimmers copper in the light."_

_ "Yes, and her blushed cheeks as well." _

_ The Hero of Twilight rolled his eyes slightly._

_ "And her attitude," added Time. _

_ "Oh…he got much of that from you, dear." She studied Twilight again. "Now, I know what you have come for, but I am afraid I'm not the one you should ask." She nodded to her lover, the husband she could have only in death._

_ Wordlessly, Twilight reached into his rucksack and pulled out their journals. He flipped to the back of the book._

_ "I want you to show me how to read this," he said. Time laughed. _

_ "You pull up the Master Sword; travel back in time to find us, so you can learn to read Kokiri? Haven't I shown you enough?"_

_ "You showed me sword skills, passing on the art of what you learned. This is different."_

_ "How is this different?"_

_ "Easy," said Twilight. "You've passed on. You aren't a ghost any longer. And why is that?" _

_ Time was silent, but Zelda laughed._

_ "Oh, I _like_ you," she snickered. "I'll bet your give your Queen utter hell."_

_ "Every moment of every day," Twilight replied, pushing the open book under Time's nose. "Now, teach me."_

* * *

Link pushed the larger of the two packages into Zelda's hands.

"Open it. Carefully."

She eyed him cautiously, feeling the package through the brown paper it was wrapped in. It was material of some sort. He probably bought her a dress. Or lingerie. (He had rather good taste in both.) She untied the twine and unfolded the paper.

It was a wedding veil.

It was made of delicate, silver silk tulle, embroidered with metallic threads around the edges, It was very long- would probably trail a food five feet behind her when she walked. But what was most remarkable was the pattern sewn into it. The silver threads swirled into merry little vines and leaves, intertwined with emeralds and jade. Rubies and sapphires, pearls and alexandrite and amethyst, diamonds and citrine and peridot and tourmaline and every other color of gemstone known to mankind, made up clusters of little flowers. It was _stunning_ and oddly…..familiar. She ran a hand gingerly over one of the flower bunches, and a vision most vivid shook her mind.

* * *

_Her teeth were red with blood, as if she'd been punched in the mouth._

"_I'm dying," the Queen told the Hero of Time, _her_ Hero of Time. Her head was propped onto a pillow, her delicate arms were covered in bruises. She looked weak, empty, thin….._

_ "Zelda." His voice was pleading._

_ "Do not beg me. I want to die. I…."_

_ "Zelda, you have two other sons! Don't you love them as much as your first? Don't you think I miss him, too? Don't you think I want him back, too?! You can save yourself, and you know it! Why are you doing this to yourself?!"_

_ She reclined back onto her pillow, closing her eyes in pain. "I'm not exactly dying of my own accord, you know. I set this into motion long before I could have the chance to second-guess myself."_

_ "Then why are you-" the thought snapped into his mind and he slammed his mouth shut. Zelda looked at him with endless love and sadness, boundless regrets and infinite wisdom._

_ Oh._

_ Oh, no._

_ She was transferring her life's spirit to his._

_The tears began to well, and quickly spill._

_ That was why she had not allowed the funeral to commence. That was why she needed their son's body whole._

_ "Zelda….Zelda, how _could_ you?!"_

_ The queen coughed, blood trickling out of the corner of her mouth. _

_ "It was the easiest decision I've ever made, actually. Right up there with loving you." She laid a hand on his cheek. _

_ "The kingdom will know as soon as I am gone," she whispered, the blood coming up faster now. "Keyais was legitimate and will of course inherit the throne. I told him years ago in secret. He loves both of them like brothers. You know this already." She smiled, a serene smile, as if the blood wasn't there._

"_The world will know. The world will know of our love. And now, they can't punish you. We did that, you know." She coughed one more time, one more violent, terrible time; the Hero of Time pounced on top of her, straddling her miniscule, bony hips, taking her into his arms, as she died. _

_Somewhere deep in the castle, life came back into their son as one giant sucking breath, and his brothers rejoiced as his father mourned. _

* * *

Zelda was struggling to breathe.

"Link."

"Yes?"

"What is in the other package?"

Link smiled again, a smaller smile, but one with much meaning.

"I think you know that," he said, pushing it towards her gently. She untied the twine and unwrapped the paper, tenderly, gently, and stared at the long-lost crown of the Queen of Destiny, adorned with a colorful gem for every citizen of Hyrule, for every facet of the Hero of Time's love for her. Her eyes were as round as saucers when Link kissed her.

* * *

"_Will this suffice, Twilight?" Time asked. They'd spent about two days learning the language. It came easily to Twilight, as if the knowledge had been there the entire time and simply needed someone to turn the key. The latter hero looked up from his notes, legs crossed and shoulders slumped._

"_Yes, it will." He was facing away from Zelda._

_The Queen of Destiny regarded this new hero one last time._

"_My child, I have one last gift for you to give your Zelda." But before Twilight could turn to her, she was gone, replaced by a most wondrous crown._

"_Well, that will certainly boggle her mind," he said, walking over to pick it up. When he turned to say thank you to the Hero of Time, he spoke only to air, and was suddenly aware of how terribly alone he was._

* * *

"So these are my gifts to you, Queen Zelda. One, the fabled lost tiara of the Queen of Destiny. Two, a wedding veil most precious, one you can wear on our day. And three, the knowledge of the end of the Hero's Journal, the language of the Kokiri."

Zelda looked at him, confused.

"But I'm not the one who learned it."

Link extended a finger and placed it between her eyes. From it, a green bead erupted, then disappeared behind Zelda's eyes.

The room was suddenly a vision of viridescent letters and joyous squiggles. Her ears were flooded with the sounds of strange vowels and syllables that made no sense and all the sense in the world_, _much like love and time travel. The next words to come from her mouth were most foreign and _most_ familiar.

"_Thank you, Link," _she spoke in the long-lost language, the sounds lilting, chirping, and jubilant.

The Hero took the crown into his hands and rested it tenderly on her forehead. Then, he threw the veil outward, letting it stretch, before dropping it gently in place. He took her hand lightly into his, helping her stand, and led her to the mirror.

"Now," he began smoothly, admiring her reflection. "You do look most beautiful in this dress, but it does not suit you. Perhaps something simpler, but elegant, and you truly will be the most beautiful bride the world has ever seen. We'll see what your sister can whip up." He spoke the words in Kokiri and kissed the back of her head through her veil.

She was too entranced by the beauty of the multitude of gemstones to notice when he dropped out of the window, leaving her in the same daze as always.

* * *

She looked at her reflection, pleased.

It was the most beautiful dress Agitha had ever procured; it was a simple, incandescent silver trumpet gown (modeled after the colors in the wings of a dragonfly, apparently), flaring at her knees, hugging her hips most flatteringly. Little Beth from Ordon, who really wasn't so little anymore, had done a wonderful job on her makeup, slicking gloss onto her lips to make them kissable and lightly lining her eyes to make them shine. They picked up the lapis in the veil and crown. She wore her hair in intricate fishtail braids, the crown resting happily atop the twists.

In lieu of a bouquet she held a round kissing ball; the rainbow flowers seemed to sparkle in the candlelight of her dressing room. Finally, FINALLY, she was called to walk.

King Ralis greeted her, a smile huge on his face when he saw her.

"Wow," he whispered, breathless.

"Let's hope Link likes it as much as everyone else seems to."

"If he doesn't, I'll marry you instead!" Ralis joked, and they both laughed.

The walk was fifteen minutes long, and dizzying. Hundreds of dignitaries and commoners alike lined the aisles that had been decorated with rainbow ribbons, smiling in awe at the beautiful bride.

As she and Ralis paused at the start of the final aisle, she finally saw her lover, facing the altar. She could see his sparking golden hair and the iridescent silver cape adorning his shoulders, and the serene half-smile she'd worn previously broke into an enormous grin. She looked behind her at the long train of her dress, then up to Ralis' twinkling eyes, and the same thought occurred to them.

She bent over and pulled off her shoes, handing them to the Zora king. Grinning, he stepped behind her, hiking up her veil and train so she could run. And run she did, as the congregation gasped in surprise (or offense, depending on who it was), as the Queen of an entire kingdom and the king of the Zoras bolted up the aisle, breaking every custom and bit of etiquette expected at a wedding. Gone was the graceful queen of manners and kindness, instead was the tomboyish hellion that only broke free in front of one person.

Link, who only saw the priest's eyes widen comically and only heard the stunned gasps of the audience, whipped around in a hurry. _Did she run away? Will she leave me? No no no no no no no..._

But instead, up ran his bride like a child on Yule morning, rainbow petals falling and tears dripping and glittering veil floating and glorious dress flying out behind her, Ralis close at hand to make sure she didn't trip; up she ran, throwing herself into his arms, pressing her lips to his over and over and over through the silk veil. And though words were spoken and rings were exchanged and vows were muttered, making their marriage official in the eyes of the heavens, it was an unnecessary blur.

They were wed the moment their lips collided like stars soaring through the sky ;it was not something they needed the goddesses to approve of.


	8. Pumpkin Ambassador

There seems to be a tad bit of confusion over the time in the chapters, so I'll explain a bit.

They aren't in chronological order, but they are all happening to the same Link and Zelda. I do try to pull hints from previous events into the current chapter- for example, part of why the wedding took so long to occur will be fleshed out.

The chronological order of the chapters is this: 5, 6, 1, 2, 4, 3, 7. Our princess/queen and hero seek solace in one another after the departure of Midna; she falls with child and loses it in subsequent months; they begin to rebuild a friendship/romantic relationship of humor and fondness, he gets captured and nearly killed, they get married five years after the events of Twilight. During that first year, Link and Zelda try to remain friends but go separate ways, with Link going to Ordon for a while.

Some of the chapters will fall in between these times.

Hope that helps with the questions.

And yes, I totally reference **Frozen** in the beginning of this. Just let it go, guys. :p

And yes, I also reference Beyoncé, because it's Beyoncé.

**This starts right after the children have been reunited with their parents. Mayor Bo and Ilia come to Castle Towne shortly after to take care of some official business. Basically, she came home, and they left a day or two later to come back together. **

Now, enjoy.

* * *

The Princess sat across from Mayor Bo and his daughter, Ilia. She had extended a dinner invitation to them that morning. Bo had accepted gracefully, but the worry on Ilia's face was plain. Zelda had a feeling that the girl was used to peasant meals, without fancy cutlery and breakable plates. So out of comfort, she requested the meal by in her private study.

Zelda studied the Ordonians. Ilia was a pretty girl, with bright green eyes and the sloped nose typical of forest folk. She had moss-brown hair that was cut short for utility- long hair wouldn't do when one dwelled in the heat- and was dressed simply in a green frock that matched her eyes. She wore sandals that really weren't appropriate for dinner with the Princess of Hyrule, but Zelda didn't care. She found in refreshing.

A bowl of pumpkin soup, followed by a salad, followed by stuffed Cornish hens with a side of greens, and finally a dessert with a small cup of liquor, was served to the three. And though Ilia was unrefined, she was also quick. The Princess felt her short, darting glances in her direction, positive the girl was making sure to pick up the right spoon or fork. It didn't bother her much, though she did feel bad about it. She wished the cooks would have acquiesced to a simpler meal. They were _impossible._

"That was very delicious, Your Grace," the girl told her after the dessert plates were carried off. Zelda nodded.

"I must admit, I didn't want a multiple-course meal, but the cooks never listen. One time, I asked for broiled lemon trout filets and I got the entire fish, eyeballs and all." Ilia laughed. Zelda patted her napkin delicately to her lips, and placed it on the table.

"Now, I have a few things I'd like to discuss with the two of you. However, I'd like if this remained confidential." She paused, and the Ordonians nodded.

"I will be candid. I'm very worried about Link. He has gone through a series of most terrible trials. He had to single-handedly kill hundreds of foes, some of whom were not just mindless monsters but fairly intelligent beings. He was nearly killed himself multiple times. His scars are-" she stopped, realizing that if she talked about his bare back it would probably not wise- "…both mental and physical, I am sure.

"He also suffered the loss of someone very beloved to him, as did I. The Twilight Princess, Midna, was his companion throughout his travels. However, she is gone forever. None of us will see her again. It is difficult to explain exactly what happened, both for him and for me as well, for I grew close to the Princess during our turmoil." She noted that Ilia's mouth pursed slightly into a line, confirming her suspicions. The girl was in love with Link.

_Well, who isn't?_ She thought dryly, but continued.

"Link will need the support of his beloved village. He may not even realize that he needs your care. He's expressed to me the desire to return for a while, to try and clear his mind and find some semblance of normalcy, and I completely support this. He has done so very much, he deserves to rest his weary head. I have told him of plans to honor him when the castle is restored, and he seemed to be happy with the idea, but for now….for now, he needs to find solace in the things and people that he loves." She forced her eyes to settle directly on Ilia. _He is going to need you, and your love. Please give it to him, _Zelda thought. The girl seemed to realize and nodded slightly.

"One more thing. The wolf so many of our people was terrified of- the great gray and black beast with bright blue eyes- that was Link. He had been transformed by dark magic. He still carries the Wolfstone on his person, I believe. Do not be surprised if he needs to transform every so often. He is not the Link you once knew. He is far wilder, and he has become a killer. Do not worry for your children or your own lives, for he will never pose danger to you, but remember that his hands are forever stained with blood.

"As such, I must ask the people of Ordon a very strange but true request. Take care of our Hero. Love him, make him feel at home, and carry him when he cannot walk. Accept his bloodstains, for they are also your own. They are my own, as well. He bears the burden the rest of us deserve."

The last thought before Zelda closed her eyes that evening were of the mayor's pallid, silent face and crying green eyes of his daughter.

* * *

Zelda stood in the stables, observing the Hero silently pack his gear. It had been a week since the Ordonians' departure. That week had been most wonderful. They'd shopped for an apartment for him, spent days in the markets eating vendor's candy, and spent nights at Telma's bar trying every exotic beer known to Hyrule. It was possibly the best week she'd ever had. But now, she was watching as he strapped his equipment to his horse, feeling like she was going to be sick.

He began to fiddle with his bow string.

"You don't have to leave, you know," she said, trying to keep the pleading out of her voice.

His eyes remained on his weapon. Zelda tried again.

"I've decided to name you the official Pumpkin Ambassador."

Finally, he looked at her.

"That is _not _a thing."

"Sure it is. I made it a thing," she replied, trying to remain stoic.

"And what, pray tell, does the Pumpkin Ambassador do?"

"Well, he mans all of the official Ordon pumpkin deliveries to the Castle Towne markets, and shares delicious recipes for the confused city-dwellers on how to properly prepare their gourds."

"Wait. So what have the people been doing with them, then, if they don't know how to prepare them?"

"Decoration…"

Link yelped in outrage.

"You mean they've wasted all of that food on _home décor?!"_

"Well, not all of them. Some of them know what to do. But most of them use them to decorate their porches for Hallow's Eve."

Link stared at her in disbelief for a good ten seconds, and then shook his head.

"Please tell me you utilize your pumpkins more efficiently than that."

Zelda shifted from one foot to the other.

"You don't, do you?"

"No, I do! Well, the cooks do. Cinnamon sugar pumpkin seeds are one of my favorite snacks."

Link slung a leg up over Epona.

"Noted. Say, have you ever had pumpkin fudge?"

"Unfortunately, I have not. Is it good?"

"It is delicious. I will…make sure to establish a Pumpkin Fudge Route. It will be my first goal as Pumpkin Ambassador." Zelda bit her lip, trying not to burst out laughing. He pulled gently on Epona's reigns, leading her to the stable doors.

"May I follow you out of town?" Zelda asked.

"What on earth would the people think if I let you walk? No, if you want to accompany me, you must ride. He slung himself back down, and before Zelda could protest, he snaked his arms around her waist and threw her atop the horse. She shifted her legs to the side, to ride as a lady would. He guided Epona out of the stables, and they began to walk slowly to the gates.

* * *

Link marveled at how beloved the Princess was by her people. As they walked through the markets, little children ran up to her in droves, presenting her with flowers or small trinkets. He was worried that Epona would startle, but she remained calm, as though she knew the children meant no harm. He stroked her nose gently as a teenage boy, probably about fifteen, approached them with a bouquet of white roses.

He fought back extreme jealousy when the boy kissed her hand, but broke when the lips lingered too long.

"That's enough, kid," he growled, pushing the confused boy off of her hand and clicking his tongue so Epona would begin walking again. Zelda looked down in disapproval.

"That was unnecessary!"

"He was trying to impregnate you through his mouth."

Zelda's jaw dropped.

"That is literally the most disgusting thing anyone has ever said to me!"

"Well, it's true!" Link said stubbornly, and Zelda knew she would get nowhere else in the conversation. They walked in silence for a few minutes.

The Ordon man looked up at his Princess, framed by the tender sunlight of the morning, and tried not to stare. Her face peered down; it was at the exact angle it had been in when they'd made love only days before. Considering how she snapped her head back up and faced forward, the same thought occurred to her. He decided to try and talk again.

"I am sorry for my earlier outburst."

"No…..it is all right." Still, she faced forward, and Link wondered if she was scared to look him in the eye again, lest she kiss him in plain view. He sighed again, at a loss for conversation. Finally, they reached the gates.

"So, then, Princess. What else does the Pumpkin Ambassador do?" He put his hand in hers and she dismounted gracefully. Epona whinnied. Apparently she'd liked the Princess and didn't want her to leave.

It was in that moment Link realized he was standing very close to her and that she hadn't noticed this fact yet; she was adjusting her skirts. As if being pulled like a magnet he began to draw in closer, placing a hand on Epona's flank on either side of the Princess' face. When she finally looked up, his face was perhaps two inches away from hers. He made no move to kiss her, only stared at her deeply, drinking her in.

"We should have had a pair of guards follow us. You'll have to walk back to the castle alone. Should I turn around?"

"No, there is a secret passage just behind those bushes that leads directly to my bedchambers." At the mention of her bedchambers, Link narrowed his eyes, but remained silent.

"You look at me as though you'll eat me," she whispered, but she did not pull away.

"I've been hungry," he admitted, every millimeter between them a mile.

"What are we doing." It was not a question.

"Ask me to stay, and I will, Princess," he whispered, ignoring her statement.

"I can't, Link. You cannot stay."

"Why not?"

"Because you need your old life! You need your friends and your pumpkins and you need to rest your head! You told me this not three days ago!"

"Yes, but I was not standing near as close to you as I am now."

"Link. The girl. Ilia. She's in love with you, don't you realize that?"

He blinked, one, two, three times.

"I…"

"It would be selfish of you to stay. She thinks you are going home to her. You told her that, didn't you? When she promised she'd be there waiting? Isn't that what you said to her?" Zelda's tone had become slightly bitter.

"How did you…"

"I remember everything from when I was joined with Midna. Perhaps in patches, perhaps slowly, but that is one thing that sticks out most greatly. Do you love her, Link? She'll marry you if you want a wife. She'll be so good for you. Go home to her. You promised her. You…"

She was cut off by his lips hitting against hers. She parted her mouth, sucking his outstretched tongue hungrily. Epona shifted suddenly and they crashed to the stone ground, his hand cushioning her head so she would not hurt herself.

Wordlessly, he picked her up, and carried her to a nearby patch of bushes.

He pulled her on top of him, pressing his lips desperately to hers, parting her mouth again with his tongue and running his fingers up her legs, or twirling them through her silken hair. Crazed by some rotten demon, she hiked up his chainmail and tunic and yanked down his pants as he took one finger and slid her panties to the side; he was inside of her so quickly her lungs barely had time to refill with air. It was swift and fanatical, his touches rough and her kisses heavy. There they sighed together, on the dirt and stone, like dogs at the start of springtime.

He was still panting when he jerked her to her feet, his hands still tangled into her hair when he kissed her one last time, before he ran off at inhuman speed, launching himself onto his horse and galloping off, leaving a filthy and nearly-crying Zelda standing in shrubbery. She stumbled to the enchanted hatch, whispered the incantation, and disappeared into the hallway.

She _should _be angry, but she wasn't.

This was the price of falling in love with a wolf.

* * *

It was a price Ilia was not equipped to handle.

When Link galloped over the bridge into Ordon, she was there to meet him. But the disheveled, dirty man that rode in was much wilder than the man she knew before. She was sure she saw little bruises on his neck and scratches on his face, with no idea where they'd come from. She eyed him suspiciously.

"You pushed Epona too hard. She'll tear a tendon, Link." But her fussing fell on deaf ears.

"She's all right," he said absently, "she told me she'd be fine with time in the spring."

"She _told _you? Since when do you speak horse?" Ilia chortled, but Link ignored the question.

"Ilia…I need rest. Will…will you help me rest?" He finally met her eyes, the deep blue pleading and desperate. The girl nodded.

"Of course, Link." She stretched out her hand, and let his fingers weave into hers. He liked how her hand felt- rougher than Zelda's, but warmer. They were sturdy hands, hands that were used to work and love in equal parts. Silently, she led him to the spring, letting him lie down in the warm, soothing waters.

"You haven't bathed in two days, have you?" she asked him as she began to run her fingers through his hair, untangling it. She breathed him in, and for the first time in far too long, enjoyed his scent. It was mostly the same as it had always been- male, woodsy, as if everything green perfumed him- but something else….a softer smell….punctuated it. It smelled a bit like lavender and and a bit like oranges, but mostly, it was _feminine_.

She shrugged. The oranges were blossoming this time of year; he'd probably slept in a grove on his way there. He closed his eyes as she ran her fingers over his forehead and temples, rubbing them to release tension.

"You smell like a girl."

His eyes opened, flashing sudden terror, before closing again hastily.

"I slept in an orange grove. Must be the blossoms," he said, shrugging off her comment. Slowly, she began to work on his shoulders, and much to her surprise, he threw his shirt off into the spring. What she saw shook her so deeply, she nearly had to stop touching him.

A patchwork of deep, deep scars marred his back, some still fairly new, some quite old. She ran a hand over each, and he shuddered into her touch.

"What did you go through, Link?" she whispered. He did not reply. Slowly, tentatively, she laid her lips on the deepest. He looked over his shoulder and shook his head.

"Ilia…..please….please, don't. Not now." She nodded, understanding but not really, and just draped her arms across his shoulders. He put a hand up to her arms, holding on tenderly, and they watched the sun in the spring, the golden rays flickering like fireflies.

* * *

"I brought you some breakfast porridge, Link," a voice called out, and he heard someone climbing the ladder outside of his front door. Ilia.

He jerked his head off of the redwood table where he had fallen asleep and gazed sleepily at the bowl being placed in front of him. She took one hand and put a spoon in it, and shoved the bowl right under his nose.

Ilia was a good cook. Even her porridge was delicious; she always got it creamy and just sweet enough. He looked down to see a red swirl and smelled raspberries- she'd put some jam in it this morning. She uncorked a bottle and poured some fresh milk, cream sitting on top.

"Eat," she told him. "You told Fado you'd start herding goats again, remember?"

Yes, he did remember this. He looked up at her and smiled gratefully.

"Thank you, Illy." She reached out and grabbed his other hand.

He'd been back for about a week, and settling in was...difficult. One, it took at least three days for his lips to stop throbbing from the feel of Zelda's. Two, it was just odd, to have nothing but quiet days. And three, Ilia was being considerably more forward about her affections. She was _trying_ to hold back, he surmised, but just couldn't.

He finished up the porridge, running a finger along the bottom to get the last bit of raspberry.

"That's not very gentlemanly."

"I know, I know...then again, I'm in my own house, I can be as ungentlemanly as I want to."

"I hope not to me." He cocked his head, a small but genuine smile crossing his lips.

"Of course not. Unless..."

She narrowed her green eyes at him.

"Unless what?" she challenged.

He grinned and stood up, grabbing her around the waist and flying out the door. She was yelling. But there she was, slung over his shoulder, as he padded his way to the little creek that ran through Ordon.

"I swear to goddesses, Link, if you even think about-" Oh, but he had thought about it already, and before she could finish her sentence she was submerged in water.

"OH YOU!" She hollered, catching his heel as he tried to run away and attempting to drag him back in with her. She finally prevailed in tripping him up and into the water he tumbled, landing right next to her.

For the first time in a very long time, he laughed. Not the sardonic chortles that Zelda elicited or the eye-rolling snorts from Midna's filthy jokes, but a true, free, childlike belly-laugh. He felt it shake through his gut and down to his feet, and for just a moment, he felt like a little boy again.

* * *

He missed her.

Zelda.

Not Ilia.

He missed her and needed her.

Four months since he'd left her. Two months since the ball she'd hosted in his honor, where Ilia hung on his arm and introduced herself as his betrothed. Two months since Rusl looked at him with disappointment in his eyes, seeing through the farce.

And then _this._

He took the Princess' hand and together they walked down the hill overlooking the goat pastures. Surrounded by a bubble of their own sadness, no one dare interrupt.

Except Ilia.

She didn't _mean_ to be pushy. She had a fiery personality. She loved him dearly. But she was overbearing in that way that mothers were- he thought on the gray-black swirl they'd just released and choked on his breath- and she couldn't help it.

She marched up to them, worry written across her features.

"Are you okay? Link? Princess?" They kept walking.

"Link! Are. You. Okay. Why is the Princess here? What has happened-"

Link never really yelled at women, especially those he cared about. And _especially _less one he was supposed to be engaged to, even though he'd never actually proposed to her. But he felt his tongue itch and it wasn't her fault- she really, really, really wasn't doing anything wrong- but the words flew out of his mouth before he could stop himself.

"_NO. NO I AM NOT ALL RIGHT. _ARE YOU _STUPID?_ DO I LOOK ALL RIGHT TO YOU? DOES _SHE_ LOOK ALL RIGHT TO YOU?!" The outburst made Ilia shrink back in fear.

"You want to know what the Princess is here for? She's here so we could say goodbye to our daughter! Is _that_ a good enough answer for you?"

The silence that overcame the villagers was deafening.

* * *

"I'm sorry," Ilia whispered. Link had just put the Princess to bed, and was hanging off of his ladder. He jumped down silently.

"No, I am sorry. I...I...should not have yelled at you. I shouldn't have lost my patience." He gestured to his little redwood table, the little redwood table they'd eaten at so many times before.

"I didn't know that you and the Princess were...involved." She was trying to keep the tears out of her voice.

Link shook his head.

"We...weren't really. We...ah...laid together before we came back to Hyrule Proper...it was a very...surreal time. It wasn't something either of us understood...I still don't understand it..."

"It explains a lot," she said bluntly. "You can't even draw me anymore."

He just looked at her through his eyelashes, and she stood up and left, determined to not leave her heart on that damned table.

* * *

_"You did a good job today in the fields, Link," Ilia told him. He hung his lantern on the little hook above his bed and pulled off his sandals, saying nothing._

_"We were a little worried you'd lose your touch...but you were so good." He untied his belt and waist piece, and unwrapped his shirt. This, she had seen before. _

_But she did not expect him to untie his pants and drop them. He had acted very odd since they'd returned from Castle Towne, from the party in his honor and the dinner they shared with the Princess. Taken aback and incredulous, she began to blush._

_"What in the name of Din are you doing?" she snapped as he stood there in only his under shorts. She hadn't seen him this naked in years, since they were very small children, and it was perfectly acceptable for them to bathe together. She'd seen him in swim trunks before, but those were longer and thicker and considerably less flimsy...she realized she was staring at the spot between his thighs and that it was hardening and she tore her eyes away. _

_He didn't answer her, just simply looked at her with a hunger she couldn't quite identify. Suddenly, he was upon her, far closer than was appropriate for him to be. She felt his mouth trembling._

_Not understanding exactly what she was doing, she leaned forward, cautiously touching her mouth to his. He drew her into the kiss deeper, pulling her back to his bed, and pulling her on top of him. She tried not to fumble._

_She felt his hands travel up her back and wrap around her neck. His mouth was needing, despairing. And yes, she was a woman grown, and yes, there was desire, and yes, she wasn't an idiot and she knew he was a man in his prime. But Zelda's words floated back into her mind. That he wasn't the same man she knew before, that he was wilder. Those words convinced her to break her lips away from his._

_"Link. Stop. What are you doing?"_

_He pulled his head back and looked at her as if she were a stranger. As if he'd expected her to be someone else. She pushed the thought out of her mind and stood up. _

_"Link, I...I made a promise to you. I told you I would always be here, and I will be. But this is wrong."_

_He opened his mouth as if to contradict her, then shut it. She turned away from him._

_"If you want me as a man wants a woman, you will marry me first. I will not give that up to the man who is not my husband, even if that man is you. I'm not a harlot."_

_His brow furrowed and she swore she saw a flash of anger in his eyes. But his expression softened after a moment._

_"I'm sorry. I don't know how much you know about my time away, but..."_

_"Princess Zelda told me that you were the wolf. That it now ran in your veins as much as your Hylian roots."_

_His eyes widened._

_"I cannot begrudge you desires if they've become a part of who you are. If I was your wife...I would love all parts of you. I...I...already do. Even the parts I don't understand. But you need to understand something, too. There are things I want as well. I want a husband and then a family, in that order. And I will not lie with you before that." At this, Link buried his head in his hands._

_"I'm sorry, Illy," he whispered. "You deserve better." He lifted his head and looked into her eyes; she felt her breath catch with the gentleness in his own. That was the Link she remembered. Gentle, kind Link. She was so glad that he was still there._

_"Perhaps...perhaps we can get married soon," he whispered, a small smile back on his face. "It would be nice. We could get married next to the big pumpkin patch in the fall. We..." he trailed off, his eyes drifting away. She walked back over to him, and took his hand into her own._

_"Perhaps." And though part of her heart was soaring at his words, another part of her was sure that she could never provide exactly what he needed._

_"I love you," she whispered, placing a tender kiss on his forehead. "Get some sleep. I'll bring you breakfast in the morning." He nodded and put his head back down, facing away from her. _

* * *

"Illy." She heard her nickname and peered over the loft.

"Go away. Shouldn't you be with the Princess?"

"I asked Rusl to stay for a few moments. We need to talk."

"Well, I don't want to talk."

"Too bad. We're talking." She threw a pillow down over the ledge at him, but it was quickly tossed back into her arms. And there he was, climbing up the ladder, his rucksack slung over his shoulder.

"What do you want to talk about?" She said, attempting to hiss but failing miserably.

"What you you _think_ I want to talk about?"

"I'm not playing this game."

He sighed.

"Fine. If you don't want to talk, we don't have to. But there is something I need to finish for you." He pulled out his sketchpad and colored pencils, and climbed onto the foot of her bed.

"I've treated you like goat shit."

She scoffed.

"That's putting it lightly. You took me to your commemoration ball but two monthsago. You've spent the last four months acting like we are engaged, like you _love _me-"

"I do love you."

"You pulled me onto you like you wanted me!" she had lowered her voice at this, not wanting her father to storm up and castrate the poor boy. "You-"

He did not let her finish, crossing the space between them and pulling her into his arms.

"Shut up for just one second, for the love of the goddesses," he murmured into her ear. One arm still around her, he pulled his sketchpad closer.

* * *

_Lust bubbled in his belly like potion in a cauldron and he let his hand drift between his legs. But when his mind immediately replaced the pink-candy scent of Ilia with the smell of orange blossoms and lavender fields; when he felt her long, gossamer mahogany hair around his fingers and her orchid-blue eyes drilling into his heart, he jerked his hand back up out of his pants. He was _disgusting. _He was going to let himself use his best childhood friend to...no._

_He shot up, stumbling through the dark to find the Wolfstone, and pressed it to his skin. It felt better than any woman, the transformation into the beast, and he tore out of his house and into the woods. He ran, savoring the feel of leaves and breaking branches between his paws, wishing- no, _dying_- for the taste of blood on his tongue. When he found a baby deer and took it down, the sound of its skin breaking in his mouth was more release than a woman could ever be. He heard the shuffle of other wolves watching him. They never crossed him. They knew he was their alpha, even though they never spoke or fought._

_Satiated, he trotted off after he finished his meal, leaving the rest for the other packs to feast upon. He found the little rock he'd sat upon so many times before with Midna; her lemon-stardust scent still lingering, even now. And he howled. And thought._

_Ilia._

_Two months before his departure, on his eighteenth birthday, Mayor Bo had a sit-down with him. At the time, it was sweat-inducing, but now it seemed so distant, as if it happened to another person._

_"Link," the Mayor had begun, his words pregnant with caution, "Have you considered looking for a wife yet?"_

_He had startled a little bit, but shook his head._

_"It was never really on my mind, sir."_

_"Well...when you do decide to start looking...don't forget about what's right here."_

_Link had met the mayor's eyes in understanding and he remmebered nodding, as if he really understood._

_"I certainly won't, sir. I feel like I could look the world over and never match what I could have here."_

_How wrong he had been. How very, very wrong. _

_He shook his scruffy mane and howled again._

_Ilia would spend her entire life being his wife. She'd cook his meals and clean his house and bear his children. She'd give him a warm bed. She would never tell him no. She'd fight him, or resist him; she'd get angry and stick her feet in the mud, but then she would relent. She'd always relent. She always _had_ relented. She was the creek that led to a river that led to a booming waterfall that led to a creek once again. He would consume her. Ruin her. He would waste her life, the life and love she could have given to another man. She'd spend the rest of her days trying to understand a void she couldn't even see. He'd eat her alive and spit her out like rabbit bones._

_But Zelda._

_Zelda would sacrifice him in a moment for her kingdom. Where Ilia was flowing water, Zelda was friction. Where Ilia needed him to be a good husband that led her to a happy life, Zelda did not need him, or even want him, really. But she craved him, crazed with fever and passion, that made her royal stolidity melt like icicles in summer heat. She did not look to him for guidance. If she needed to, she'd flick him off of her shoulder like a bothersome insect. _

_There were men who spent their entire lives looking for someone like Ilia. Someone to make a home. Someone who needed their husbands. But he would never have a home again. He was cursed to wander, to look for purpose as great as saving Hyrule. To be bound by someone of the earth was to be in chains, to be locked into a dungeon._

_He needed the stars above him and the ground beneath his feet. He needed blood on his tongue. He needed the sweet air between Epona's ears and the songs of the leaves in the trees. _

_Ilia was strong. But it was not the kind of strength he needed. He would come home and she would ask him questions, expecting answers. _

_Zelda wouldn't ask, because she wouldn't have to; she knew what blood tasted like. _

* * *

Link sighed, heavily.

"I'm sorry."

When Ilia did not respond, he continued.

After what's transpired, what can I do? How can I explain to you what I have with Zelda, when I can't explain it to myself? How can I explain to you what I've been through? I'd spend a lifetime trying and failing. I've changed, in ways you cannot even imagine. Before I drank of life tentatively, shyly...now...now I consume it. Ilia, you will lose yourself in me. You will spend your entire life being a good wife to me._ And you will never be enough_. It isn't your fault."

The tears that had threatened to start at the beginning of his spiel were flowing freely from her eyes.

"But," he whispered, running his hand through her short, soft hair, "but, you are someone I love. You are sunshine. I owe more to you than anyone else I know. And as such, Illy, I made a grave mistake not finishing your picture." He flipped the sketchbook open with his free hand.

"And I'd like to complete it now. I can't change my mistake, but I can make it better."

Ilia stared at him in disbelief. She _wanted_ to tell him no. She _wanted _to tell him to get the fuck out of her bed and out of her heart and to leave her alone and never talk to her again. She did not tell him these things.

"Okay," she whispered. "But it better be as good as those other three you drew."

"It will be the best of all. Now, face me."

Watching his fingers fly across the paper was magical. Though he told her to look in his direction, he really didn't need to see her. Her knew her lines and angles as well as he knew the others, she realized. And what came forth from the pages was beautiful. He drew her in a soft, tan dress with a crown of white flowers covering her hair; one hand on the nose of a beautiful sorrel horse. The skirt was fluttering in unseen air and the sky behind her was orange, brilliant orange. And at her feet, a silver wolf was curled, with a collar of white roses. Her other hand was behind his ears, scratching as he leaned into her. Pumpkin vines snaked around them and up the corners of the page, the deep orange fruit hanging on some invisible trellis.

"See?" he whispered, pulling the page out of the sketchbook and holding up in the light. "See, this girl is lovely. She is smart and kind and of this earth. She is worthy of so much. And see the wolf? He loves her very much. Look at how he is curled up under her hand!" He finally met her teary eyes. "Do you like it?"

She nodded.

"Yes."

"Good."

"But you need to leave."

He looked at her, shocked.

"But..."

"You need to go back to the one your soul loves. The one you are tethered to. You belong with her. I will cherish this forever," she said, standing up and pinning it to the corkboard over her desk, "But you are right. You are too wild for me. Look at the strokes on this page. They are bursting with something I cannot give you.

"Go to her. I will make sure you both have breakfast in the morning." She placed her palms on the desk and leaned over, refusing to face him again.

She heard him leap off of the ledge, her father's gruff acknowledgement of his departure, and the door close quietly. She couldn't even bring herself to cry.

She stared at the picture he drew for her, all the oranges and greens and browns, and cursed. She cursed the goddesses for taking away the gentlest soul she'd ever known. She cursed Zelda for being something she was not. But mostly she cursed Link, for being something other than what she thought he should have been.

But to expect that was her own fault, wasn't it?

She still could not hate him.

* * *

"Link! Princess! I have breakfast!" Ilia pounded on the door and opened it, hoping they would be clothed.

They'd fallen asleep in front of his fireplace, wrapped up in blankets. Link looked up at her, wide awake and full of caution. Zelda sleepily lifted her head from his chest and smiled softly at the girl.

"Thank you, Ilia. You are very kind."

Ilia met the Princess' eyes, and understanding passed between them.

When they smiled at each other, it was true and heartfelt, though full of pain.

* * *

~ Yes I'm on one hell of a roll with the updates. Don't expect this for too long though hehehe. I'm about to enter a nasty little bunch of exams and my birthday is coming up. Also, I need to work on a few of my other stories, teehee. So, ya know. Y'all know the drill. :p


	9. On a Bender

I cannot possibly describe what inspired this strange one-shot. It's fluffy, and romantic, and sexy, and _weird, _so do me a favor and don't hate me. :p

* * *

Link and Zelda had eaten the questionable mushrooms, and had landed themselves in quite a predicament.

Firstly, their respective stomachs were churning with nausea and their vision were both blurred. Secondly, strange welts had begun to appear in rather _questionable _places. But most importantly, they'd been knocked out for an hour straight, and woke up in the others' body.

"Every single survival guide I've ever read warns against eating strange mushrooms…" moaned Zelda, clutching her (Link's?) stomach and trying not to retch. Link's (Zelda's?) eyes just closed in pain.

"Nausea is infinitely worse as a woman," he wailed. He ran his hand over his stomach in sudden fear.

"Oh, for the love of Nayru, what if you start bleeding?"

Zelda turned to look glare at him, and he realized what she'd always meant about his eyes looking feral.

"If you even begin to complain, I will banish you. It's been a long-standing belief of mine that men should have to experience just one bad period in their lifetimes."

Link rolled onto his side, clutching his arms to his chest before suddenly loosening them again and looking down.

He grinned. Zelda rolled her eyes so hard, she wasn't sure she would be able to fish them out of her skull. She may have had Link's face, but her expressions were all her own.

"Don't. You. Dare." she shot at him, practically snarling.

"Don't I dare what? Hmmmmm?" he cackled, hitching a finger to the neckline of his dress then running it across his collarbone.

Zelda reached out her leather-gloved hand and slapped him hard on the wrist.

"OW! HEY! That seriously hurts! You're stronger now, don't forget that! And whatever you do to me you're actually doing to you!" She hated it when he was right, but right he was.

"C'mon. We need to go see Renado to get this business fixed," she told him, standing up. Link remained on the ground, and raised a tender arm to Zelda.

"Oh Hero of Twilight, I believe I have fallen and I cannot get up! Please save me!" Zelda had half a mind to kick him with her newfound strength, but that would probably hurt later.

So she just wordlessly walked back towards the village, ignoring how splitting her laughter seemed when she wasn't the one producing it.

* * *

They arrived back at Kakariko just when night began to fall. Link could not help but think of Midna, and what her response to their predicament would be.

He imagined it would be something like Renado's, who nearly split his robes laughing so hard at the Princess and the Hero.

"You….ate….BWAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!"

Zelda turned to Link and Link turned to Zelda, mouths agape at this display. Renado was probably the calmest, most serene person they'd ever known. His voice normally sounded like the cool water of a babbling brook, bathing the ears of the listener. Now it sounded more like white-water rapids.

"What…..exactly….led…..you….to…..do…this…bwahahahahahahahahah…"

Zelda glared at Link, which vexed her further because her normal height advantage was gone; judging by the smugness that overcame his face, he'd noticed, too.

"Well it was his fault!" she snapped.

"No it wasn't!" Link cried, defensively. "I wasn't the one who got hungry and exhausted!"

"But I wasn't the one who insisted on staying out in Hyrule Field bragging about how I made delicious campfire mushrooms instead of going back to the village as suggested!"

"Well I wasn't the one who decided to bend-" and he stopped, for Zelda's nose had flared and her eyes had widened and her lips had formed a solid, hard line, and he was certain he was going to get into a hefty amount of trouble if he kept talking.

What he was going to say was, he wasn't the one who decided to bend over a rock with her skirt hiked up, holding both of their weights up with arms that really weren't strong enough to do so in some strange position she'd read about in one of her damned books, and he could have gone much longer without the need for food, but she exhausted herself. Really, just laying down would have been perfectly acceptable. But someone (_Zelda_) had to get adventurous.

_If I am going to sully my royal bed with an illicit lover, I am going to do it right! _She'd told him as she practically bent herself into a pretzel, and he'd been too blinded with desire to argue.

Renado, in his wisdom, had picked up on the exchange, and stopped laughing. He took a moment to compose himself, then began to explain exactly what they had gotten themselves into.

"Fortunately, the effects are not long-term. Once the two of you get a good night's sleep, you should wake up in your own bodies. But you'll have to sleep very deeply to do so. I should have a good potion for that." He walked over to his shelves and surveyed them, before picking up two vials of cornflower-colored potion.

"This tonic should put you both right to bed, but it'll knock you out for awhile. So go get some sleep." He handed the vials to Zelda.

The two lovers marched up the stairs, Zelda not used to the clompy boots chainmail and Link attempting to walk in his heels. By the time they'd reached the top, he'd fallen over three times, and Zelda finally whipped around.

"If you break my beautiful royal family nose, I will have you banished," she said, but she helped him up.

_Hm. I really am light as a feather._

"You've threatened to banish me twice in one day. That must be a new record for you. Normally it's only once a week! Whatever would your council think?"

They probably wouldn't be surprised. To be honest, she hadn't really kept her affair with Link hidden. It started with the questionable books she'd checked out from the castle library. Zelda had rented out one or two similar books before, more for her thirst for knowledge that was as unquenchable as desert sand, than anything else. She'd be married one day, after all. But when she plopped a dozen on the desktop, just _daring _the librarian to question her, the whispers started.

And it was known that when she got too stressed and needed a break she would ride off for the weekend on her mare, visiting her people and refreshing herself with the riches her kingdom still had. But it was also well-known that the Hero of Twilight would come with her every time, and that when they booked inns they booked one room with one bed instead of two, and her piercing blue eyes would glower defiantly to anyone who dared to judge them silently. No one wanted to cross her, so they didn't. Everyone except Link, anyway.

She rather liked it that way. _Let them talk_.

But most didn't, not too much, anyway, and most loved the romance of the Hero and his Princess riding off into the sunset together, and the gossip stones talked of what her wedding dress would look like when he finally popped the question, or maybe _she_ would, because after all she was the _princess_ and soon-to-be-queen who did whatever she wanted and if she wanted to propose, then she most certainly would be the one to do so.

None of this pertained to the situation they were in now, however.

Her criss-cross belt was holding the sword and shield to her back, and she wanted them off. She fiddled with it, unsure of how to unhook it. Link walked up to her, a very mischievous smile on his face.

Her glower returned.

"No."

"But Princess," he said, grinning, "you were the one who wanted…._adventure."_

"This isn't adventure, this is an atypical disaster. I want to bathe before I wake up in my own form, a woman again." She eyed her hands, covered in callouses and dirty of nail. "Do you ever wash your hands? What _is _this mess under them?"

"Dirt, possibly some goat manure."

"_And you touch me with these?!" _she yelped, not caring if everyone below them heard her.

"You never seemed to mind or notice before, Princess." With one deft (_clean_) hand, he undid the buckle, dropping the sword to the ground. He bent over to pick it up.

"Ow. This is far heavier as a lady. The shield is even worse."

"Well. Why do you think I prefer a rapier?" Link shrugged, conceding her point.

She slipped the tunic then the chainmail over her head, and finally his sweaty undershirt. Being a man was disgusting. She wanted her body back.

But if her clothing gave her trouble, it was nothing compared to the look of confusion on Link's face.

"How do you even get this off…!" It wasn't a question. He'd managed to unlace the outer apron but when he tried to pull the dress up, it had gotten stuck around the waist.

"You have to unbutton it first. You've taken them off of me enough times to know that!"

"It's different when it's your own," he murmured gruffly, as Zelda yanked it back down and began to work on the buttons. Soon enough, he was standing there in undergarments.

"I assume you can manage those on your own," she said, and turned to step into the bath.

She didn't notice that Link hadn't looked up yet.

"Yes….yes, I do believe I can." He threw his underwear off, and grabbed his chest, grinning from ear to ear.

"I TOLD YOU NOT TO DO THAT," she hissed at him again. "Seriously, it's _weird_."

"Zelda, men _dream_ about this. It's one of those forbidden-type deals. Kind of like having an affair with a princess. Being in a woman's body _and _having an affair with a princess is possibly the pinnacle of male fantasy."

Zelda rolled her eyes. "Don't kill yourself in thought." _Or me._

Little did she realize, he was far too distracted by her new toys to really give much thought to anything. He ran his hands up from his waist up to the breasts, grabbing them and rubbing the nipples between his fingers. He shivered deliciously.

"We are not having sex in each other's' bodies," Zelda reiterated.

"I know! Just…ten minutes? Please?" he begged, and whined, until she finally threw up her hands in exasperation.

"Fine!"

Link launched himself onto the bed as if being tossed out of a cannon, and began to do very, very inappropriate things.

"_whoa…..I….aaah…..oh…oh my…..ouch, that hurt…..ooooooooooooooh that did NOT hurt…whoa…..WHOA…I….AH…" _It was sincerely the most awkward thing she had ever seen in her entire life. At least…..he was….enjoying himself? Like a ten-year-old boy…but…..well.

There was a stirring in her own britches, which she had been ignoring for most of the duration of this predicament, but would it really be all that weird if she…..?

Yes, yes it would be.

But a little? Just a little?

She slowly untied the top of her leggings, looking directly down. She'd run her hands all over him before, but it was a little different to be in this position. Tentatively, she stuck a hand in her pants.

Link was too busy moaning his brains out to even notice.

It was certainly an interesting sensation, getting hard as a man. It was also considerably easier than getting aroused as a woman, though the cries coming from the other side of the room would indicate otherwise.

"Hm," she noted.

She tied the pants back up, curious, but unwilling to go further. Yes, it was arousing. Yes, she was practically dying to know what it felt like to…um. Do _that_ as a man.

But it was just….too strange, right?

However, it was _not_ too strange for _him_, as he was red-faced and panting with pleasure by this point. It oddly didn't bother her to see him enjoy himself like that.

She sat down gingerly on the end of their bed, having lost track of ten minutes right after she'd set the limit. It was as difficult to walk as Link had told her it was.

His moans eventually slowed and she cocked a head at him. It was strange to see her own body like this. He looked down at the budge in her pants.

"You aren't….going to take care of that?" he asked.

"Not until you're back where you're supposed to be," she replied, and Link felt a little jolt between his legs.

"Jeez….you really do keep going….."

Zelda laughed softly.

"Yes…..the tradeoff for not being as strong as men, and for bearing the children, is multiple climaxes, as you have discovered."

"It was….really…kind of intoxicating…and I don't feel like I can walk now…." He looked off to the wall, then asked her a question she was anticipating.

"Do I…make you feel that way?"

She smiled softly.

"Yes, you do. Why on earth would I agree to twist over a rock with my skirts up and eat unidentified mushrooms and let you do what you just did if I didn't?" She tossed him a blue vial, and went to take a nice, long bath.

By the time she was finished, Link had taken his potion and fallen fast asleep, sprawled out over the bed. Zelda sipped hers - it tasted like blueberries- and settled down next to him.

* * *

Zelda woke up first, in her own body, feeling a familiar soreness between her legs and on her breasts. She waltzed down the stairs, where breakfast was being prepared, to bring Link grapefruit juice and biscuits if they were ready.

As she re-entered their bedroom, Link awoke, but as he stretched his own legs out to walk to her and get his juice, he stopped suddenly and put a tender hand over his crotch.

"OUCH! Zelda, what did you _do _to me?" His eyes quickly surveyed the room. "Why is my clawshot on the table!?"

The princess shrugged, placed the biscuits on the table, and decided that she wanted to keep the juice for herself.

* * *

YES I WENT THERE. Back to your regularly scheduled romance and depth next.


	10. Naïveté

Dear vastly-appreciated readers who would _**never**_ track down me down and murder me in my sleep:

**After much thought and deliberation, I have decided to spin the Ice-Sky arc into a ten-chapter shoot-off as another story.** I decided on this for a few reasons, but the main one is this: This ice-queen plot bunny was born in my head and wouldn't leave, but it wasn't exactly fleshed-out, either. As it began to unfurl, somewhere in the middle of the second chapter, it occurred to me that I might not be able to do it as succinctly as I previously hoped.

Basically, I realized exactly how hard it was to contain it properly. And I didn't want ten chapters of my twenty-chapter story (this story, that is) to be dedicated solely to this one arc.

It was taking away from the theme I'd established- that of a series of interrelated one-shots**. I want to go back to the sheer ZeLink-ness of these stories. **So, again….

The Ice-Sky arc will be put into a different, ten-chapter side story. I have it much better planned out, and it will fit beautifully within these chapters.

It will feature the same Link and Zelda in this story- it's a spin-off. Consider it the CSI:Miami of my fanfiction**. However, it will also be able to stand on its own, so anyone who wants to read it alone can do so.**

I will post when I do that on a header of this story, so those wondering can go about and find it.

Please don't murder me. Sometimes, these things happen in writing. I write as hobby and though I'd love to be the best writer EVAAARRRR, capable of planning out every misstep and avoiding them, I have other things that happen in my life. Part of why I get so much joy from these stories is their spontaneity, how they flow from my fingers onto the screen. Worrying about the ice-sky arc put a damper on the romance and humor of **this** collection. But never fear. We'll know what happens with Midna, Link, Neve, and Zelda. We really will. But I like Neve and I like Midna, and I wasn't doing their story any justice by cramming it into here.

All right. I hope I don't lose everyone. Or get spammed constantly. Seriously….don't do that. And again, don't murder me.

Now.

Back to your regularly scheduled Love and Ordona Pumpkins.

* * *

Link didn't even have to see her flip her hood back to know she was beautiful, but when she did, he was very happy he was a wolf because otherwise his jaw would have hit the floor.

She was gorgeous. _Gorgeous._ Her hair looked like it sparkled even in the dim firelight and her eyes were the stormiest violet-blue he'd _never_ seen. Her eyes were lined as though she wore makeup but he was certain that nothing adorned her face. Her alabaster skin was smooth like marble, her ruby, heart-shaped lips captivating; the warnings Bo and Rusl had given him were pathetically inadequate.

But what killed him wasn't her looks, though he was certain her beauty was slaying him the longer he looked at her, it was the kindness in her eyes. The compassion. The pain at seeing one of her subjects- a lowly man from Ordon who herded goats- suffering in wolf form. She had little reason to care about his personal wellbeing, and yet she did. She cared as though he were the most important person in the kingdom.

She didn't even know his name, or what he looked like. And he could see it. She cared, deeply.

Her eyes were endlessly blue, staring down at him with remorse_. _Fear that he would be angry. And filled with love.

_Love_.

And he wanted nothing more than to bite the little bitch on his back in half and curl up in front of the fire with this magnificent princess. He was sure she'd read stories beautifully, magically, the words flowing from her honeyed lips like clear cerulean springwater.

He looked up at the exasperated woman. As much as he could stand to look at her, anyway; observing her face directly was painful.

He felt like if she read to him, everything in the world would be all right.

* * *

"The guard will make his rounds soon. You should leave."

"Aaaaw, Twilight Princess…" The imp named Midna cooed, and Link had the distinct desire to throw her against the wall, "You don't want us to stay?"

"No, Midna. I simply want…"

"Well, I have some things I have to do and Wolfie here will stop me. He's not too obvious, he can stay here with you! Teehee!" With that, the imp vanished. Link did not feel her shadow and knew that she was gone.

"_Why_ is that woman so flippant? What business could she possibly have to attend to?!" Zelda sighed, incensed. "You could be killed…" Her eyes drifted down to the gray beast in front of her, and she sat down on the cold floor. She found herself at a loss for words.

She wondered if his eyes were so unnervingly _blue_ when he was human.

"I had a pet dog, before all of this," she said gently to him as he trotted up next to her. "Zant killed her in the initial invasion. She was a Shepard dog I'd found on the streets, abandoned in a gutter…" The Princess shook her head. "I'm sorry. You aren't truly a dog."

_It's okay, Princess._

His eyes seemed to say this, and she extended her hand to him. He pushed his muzzle into it. Her fingers, which had been so very cold lately, seemed to glow. He was very warm. She brushed through his fur behind his ears and he let out a puff of hot air, twisting his head so that it lay on her lap.

"It is strange, but I am treated well here. The guards bring kindling for the fire, and Zant's cooks prepare good meals. They slowly bring things from my main chambers. Clothes, paper, journals, pens. And books, they bring me several books. The history they share with me is remarkable; Zant sometimes brings them to me himself…oh, but I'm sure I am boring you." She says apologetically, but Link only huffed. She swore she heard someone talk in her head.

_Princess, you could talk about manicures and makeup and what boys you'd like to marry- wait, no, not that last one, as long as you keep scratching that spot behind my ears._

She scratched her fingers in a little harder, and smiled when his back leg began to twitch in a circle.

"I miss the daylight."

The wolf stood up and readjusted himself so he was curled around her, and she was filled with warmth for the first time since this entire ordeal began.

* * *

_I miss the daylight, too, Princess._

_ They don't make them like you in Ordon._

_ Or anywhere, really. I've never been to Hyrule, but I'm pretty sure you're the most beautiful girl in the world. _

_ That line probably wouldn't work. It'd make Ilia swoon. You'd probably just exile me._

"She tells me that you're the savior of the Twilight…..of both our lands…" She let her hand float down to his front paw and nodded at the symbol that glowed faintly when she touched it.

"Ah, yes. Yes, you are the bearer of Courage," she affirmed, and nodded.

Link had no idea what she was talking about. Perhaps her captivity made her crazy? He wouldn't blame her. Even if she was treated fairly, it was still captivity, and a being as magnificent as her certainly needed to be flying somewhere along the break of day, not cooped up in a tower.

_We'll banish this shadow and I'll take you for a ride on Epona in the sunlight. I'll banish your shivers to hell. We'll sit under the big golden fig trees in Faron Woods and I'll kiss all of your troubles away….whoa, okay, that's a little much. We can just hold hands if you'd like. Or just sit there. That's all right, too. We'll bring books and you cal tell me all the stories Hyrule has ever written._

_ Can you read to me?_

He couldn't understand why he wanted her to read to him so much.

"I knew, deep down, the moment I saw you…." Zelda turned to a nearby bookshelf, and he perked his ears up.

"I should…get to know you as best as I can right now, then. Come."

She stood up and walked to the bookshelf, then pulled out two books, along with a few pieces of folded paper.

"Are you from Hyrule or one of her Outer Provinces?"

He nodded, and she unfolded one of the papers. It was a map of Hyrule and its surrounding areas.

"Show me where."

He pushed his nose lightly to where his province was drawn.

"Ordona. On the border of Calatia." She smiled softly at him. "I wonder what you do. If you are a pumpkin farmer or a cheesemaker or a goat herder."

He yelped at the last one, and her grin broadened.

"Hyrule's fate, on the shoulders of a goat herder! Oh, the council would laugh. They always expect the Hero to awaken from some grand bloodline. But I…I trust such sturdy shoulders." She folded up the map and turned to him, and resumed running her fingers through the hair behind his ears absently. Then, she spoke again.

"Can you read and write?" When he nodded, she said, "Let's find a way to tell me your name…"

She hunted and eventually located a flowerpot, its occupant long dead with the lack of sunlight. She unceremoniously dumped it over and spread the soil around with her hands.

"Scratch each letter into the dirt."

He ran his paw in two perpendicular lines, and looked up.

"L."

One line, and a dot.

"I."

A line and a curve.

"N."

And finally, three lines.

"K….Oh! Link! Is that you name?"

He bobbed his enormous head up and down.

"A good name."

He nodded again. _I concur, beautiful Princess._

"Do you have a last name?"

_No._

She looked suddenly stricken. It was tradition among orphans to shed their last name and go by only their first. It was something Zelda always thought cruel, personally.

"Oh…you are an orphan." _Yes_. "I am….I am sorry."

She stood up and placed the papers back onto the bookshelf, then straightened her skirts, brushing the gray fur that had fallen onto them off. She walked to a door Link hadn't noticed before; it was a small adjoining closet, holding a variety of dresses and a tiny shelf. From that shelf she lifted a jewelry box, and from that box she plucked a necklace.

"Your mayor gave this to me when he visited once, when I was just a girl." She showed it to him, and Link smiled (internally) in recognition. Bo would make pieces of iron jewelry for the ladies of the town- lockets, pendants, bracelets and the like. Of course he'd grant one to the Princess of Hyrule. This piece was a locket molded in the shape of a pumpkin, with vines that swirled on the front.

"It was a bit large for me to wear as a little girl, but I always kept it. I vowed to myself on my eighteenth birthday that I would travel to each Outer Province and look at upon its inhabitants with my own eyes…" She laughed bitterly, a choking laugh, and tears began to well in the corners of her eyes. "But now…"

Link wasn't sure exactly what led him to do what he did next, but he stretched his neck out and licked her cheek, tasting the salty tears as they fell. Something about seeing this deeply disturbed him, made his vision go red with anger. It was something deep and ancient, something far larger than him, something that made him hate anyone who would ever make her cry.

She seemed to appreciate the sentiment, but not the execution of said emotion, for when he pulled away she had a look of distaste on her face.

"I suppose it's better than the kisses half of my suitors would try to lay on me…" she said shakily, drawing in a breath, and Link found his temper flaring even more at the mention of suitors.

"Take this. You'll…you'll never be alone if you have it." She flipped the locket open, showing him the picture within. It was the Water Wheel from his hometown. Then, after a moment of hesitation, she plucked another small picture from the jewelry box and slid it in. She tied the locket around his ankle tightly, then, much to his surprise, leaned down and kissed his forehead gently. Link was happy to have fur rather than skin, for he was sure he would be bright red at this point.

She pulled his other paw into her hands, and they both felt their limbs warm again.

"You have my blessings and… my love, Hero," she said, and he felt his heart beat even more violently in his wolf-chest. "Perhaps the next time we meet, I can see your true form."

_Yes. I would much prefer that._ They locked gazes for a few lingering moments, as if neither wanted to be the first to break the contact.

Eventually, she did.

"Now. Midna hasn't returned, but the guard truly will be around soon…" She glanced at a clock, picked up the books again, and walked back over to the fireplace. Link trotted over and after she sat, they resumed their earlier position- his legs and tail curled around her back, his head on her lap, right next to her hip. It was easy, natural, as if they were familiar with how to comfort the other, as if they'd mastered this a very long time ago.

"I suppose we have a few minutes. I have a few things to explain to you. Which book would you like for me to read from first?"

He nudged his nose against the one bound in golden leather. The edges of its pages were gilded green, and they shone in the firelight. The text looked to be in ancient Hylian- something he wasn't fluent in, but had a sudden interest in learning. She flipped past a few maps and began to read from the first page of text.

"There was once a forest boy without a fairy, clad in green…"

* * *

A few weeks later, running quickly and attired in a green uniform he seemed born to wear, he felt the locket hitting against his chest with steady bumps. He pulled it out and flipped it open. On one side was that old but still intact picture of the Water Wheel, reminding him of where he came from. On the other was newer picture, its subject a young woman of indescribable beauty, waiting for him to bring the latchkey to her tower, waiting for him to save her, to bring her back into the light. Reminding him of where he was going.

He closed it, slid into his Iron Boots, and adjusted the Zora armor around his frame.

"Ready, Midna?"

"Of course, wolf-boy," she chirped from his shadow, and he jumped into Lake Hylia's beautiful waters. He'd see her after this, after he had fetched the last of Midna's Fused Shadows from the Lakebed Temple.

Soon, she'd get to see him again, as a human, proud and strong.

It made his heart swell.

Soon, he'd set her free.


	11. Green Letters on a Page

Notes: The Neve side-story is up, for those who wish to continue following.

And because I refuse to be one of those authors who post updates with absolutely no content, here's a nice little story of the night before Link and Zelda's wedding.

Oh, and because this had been technically done before, if you want to post a review, you'll have to do it as a guest. Yay . Not.

Enjoy.

* * *

"_I have seen time, touched time, felt her slip through my grasp. I have slept within time, she pervades my dreams and nightmares. I have walked through time, battled with her, moved within her the way a man is made to move within a woman. I have slept enveloped in her womb, a pulsing chrysalis of pure blue light, a chamber from which I was born to awaken…I am saturated in time, in movement; I write a symphony I cannot hear, singing notes with deaf ears as my fingers feel her vibrations through the air. I trace her with my fingertips. I sing her. I play her. I live her. I _am_ her._

_And yet, it is without doubt that I have loved you since before time existed. For I have fought time, thrashed in her currents, my love a sword with which I will strike time down where she stands, and I will part the heavens and slice the sun and slaughter the moon, to be once more by your side…and if I should die along the way, I will wind back the clock's dials until I survive and find myself once more next to you…"_

Link's mouth twitched.

He looked up from the book and latched eyes with Zelda; the tears that had threatened to spill suddenly fell hot and wet down his cheeks.

He snapped the Hero's Journal shut; the green letters were still glowing through the thick leather binding.. It was as though the book had a mind of its own, refusing to close until the Hero of Twilight finished reading.

His heart had never pounded so violently in his entire life.

"For the love of the Golden Goddesses…" he managed weakly.

"That is…" Zelda whispered.

"The most…"

"_Romantic_…"

"_Passionate_…"

"_Emotional_..."

"_Beautiful_…"

"….thing I have ever…."

"Read."

"Heard." Zelda's bottom lip was quivering.

"I think I was more equipped to handle the Hylian sections," Link said, breathlessly, as the book began to shake in his hand. "They were more... ah, _mechanical_."

"Which part? The part about sword techniques, or the parts about how to properly pleasure a woman with your tongue?" Zelda tried to say it as a joke, but it was pointless to make one; her was chest rising and falling entirely too rapidly, exhilaration rising from deep within her bones, and she was far too gone in the words of the past.

"All of them. The parts that weren't…" The journal finally flipped back open of its own accord, "so heart-wrenchingly filled with _adoration_. He…he loved her so….."

"Please, Link. Please finish," Zelda begged, her eyes wide as a babe's, spilling teardrops onto their tightly-clenched hands.

So, Link continued, his throat dry, the jubilant sounds of Kokiri language filling the room like green music, flowing off of his tongue as though he'd spoken these words so many times before.

"_I feel as one, where my hand and your hand combine. Where my body ends, so yours begins; where my eyes falter, yours see, when I cannot breathe, you are the hand that parts my lips, sucking life back into me, bringing stars into a void of black from which I feel like I cannot escape. You are where the winter flowers bloom in the summer and where I find peace and contradiction, where I am crazed into sanity, where spearmint winds blow and fireflies glisten over the lakebeds; you are everything blessed encompassed into one. When tears dry to ash on my cheeks you slake my thirst until I can cry again. You are the smile of a child and the hands of a lover under a black velvet sky and I am nothing without you. _

"_You are everything beautiful time has ever conceived, the death and life of me, my end and beginning; when the world is razed to the ground and alight, we will finally live. We are not only love but the creators of love, the makers of joy, blazing trails by which every other soul will follow._

"_Where you are, so I will be. Where you sing, so I will accompany. Where you walk, I will lay down as your path. Where you breathe, I will be your air; where you drink, I will be your wine; my strength preserved only for when you fall, so that I may carry you until your legs can move, until I feel your kiss upon my forehead and I let you lead me once again._

"_I will follow you, dutifully, blindly, hopelessly, childishly, without question or conceit, unto the grave and thereafter. _

_You will never be without me. I am yours."_

The green words faded gently.

"You will never be without me. I am yours." Zelda repeated the words of the Hero of Time.

"You will never be without me. I am yours." Link confirmed the statement so quietly, it was barely audible.

"We are so much more than flesh and bone….. So, so much more. When this burden gets too heavy-" she lifted up her hand, the golden triangles were beaming inexplicably, "we must remember what we are truly a part of…."

"….A love story by which the fabric of time models itself," Link continued.

"…a love story so strong, it was destined to be reborn, time and time again…"

"…and evil will only serve as a vessel to bring me…"

"… To you…."

They spoke the words together.

Their eyes shone blue and bright and beautiful.

"They said Hylia gave up her divine form to wield the Triforce for her beloved humans. But I think…I think there was another reason." Neither was sure who spoke the words.

When they kissed, gently, softly, longingly, neither was sure where the others' lips began or ended, which fingertips were his or hers, but when lovers breathe for the other, does it matter, anyway?


	12. Triforce of Wisdom, My Ass

I've had a really bad last couple of weeks, so I haven't updated. Btw, I have a tumblr on which I upload several fics. inlemoon is the name. so find me if you want to follow me there.

As the result of my shitty weeks, I decided to go flufftastic. Enjoy.

* * *

It was dusk when Zelda lost herself in the blue-green woods, running faster than she thought herself capable. She'd gotten mad at him again. It wasn't her fault, really, he was just so infuriating, with his country bumpkin sincerity and whirling intensity. She stumbled over fallen branches and ran away, ran so far away from what he did to her.

Being in love was terrible. She was _supposed_ to be on vacation away from the castle. Instead, she was a ball of emotional frustration. At _him_. For being…perfect.

Because even as she bolted from his arms, there he always was, sitting on the forefront of her mind, in his puppydog earnestness and ferocious appetite for life, equal parts sadness and joy, light and dark. He lit her nights and darkened her days. It was dizzying. Spellbinding. Frustrating. She couldn't see straight.

But he was oblivious to everyone. To his effect on everyone. And everything. And _her_.

The final straw fell when she found herself following him around like some starry-eyed little girl as he did his daily tasks, literally surrounded by his adoring goats as they nibbled on his Ordon tunic and fingers. He was cheerily chatting about balancing alfalfa hay with brome grass, how the Kila the doe would be kidding soon and she always had twins, how there was a burrow of rabbits living in a nearby tree, how they'd planted a new kind of pumpkin this year and it was supposed to be green and green pumpkins were weird, and Bo was worried about picking it too early because pumpkins are supposed to be orange when ripe. And on and on.

She hung on his words like a fish on a hook.

And then he threw a look at her over his shoulder, _that_ look he reserved only for her, full of cherry-sweet love and honeyed devotion.

Now. Zelda was many things. A fairly quiet woman, but opinionated. Stubborn, perhaps. Educated beyond belief. And as such, she should not be hanging on the word of a herder as though he were the most fascinating, beautiful, amazing thing ever to speak.

He was _not_ a god, regardless of how he looked when he worked shirtless, in those pants that clung to him when he was drenched in sweat, his tan skin gleaming gold. He was not a god, no matter how many times he convinced her otherwise.

So she ran. Leapt over the heads of the bewildered goats and their bewildered herder, giving herself a head-start because he wouldn't just leave them. It should give her a good twenty minute lead on him, and hopefully by that time, she'd be good and lost.

She was abruptly pulled out of her thoughts when her dress caught on a thornbush and jerked her to the ground. She could practically hear his smarmy response.

"_Perhaps you aren't a goat, but if you were, you'd have followed me around and wouldn't be in this mess." _He'd gently pull her skirt off of the bush and chuckle. And then he'd play his wicked magic flute and herd her back into the stables, like all the other goats.

She screamed in frustration, because she was _not_ an ovine and did _not_ follow him, and as such, she was lost somewhere in Faron Woods with no supplies and stinging bare feet.

Being in love was _really_ terrible.

Who was she kidding? He was _eventually_ going to find her.

She winced as a twig snapped under the ball of her foot. She should have probably turned around when the foliage changed from its deep hunter hues to this strange, foamy green, but she'd been too angry. And now, an unsettling feeling began to wash over her, the feeling that she was being watched, being followed. There were little pools of water everywhere, rippling as if they'd just been touched, and she swore that she heard distant music.

It was bone-chillingly eerie. It sent shivers up her spine.

But the alternative was going back to him. The one who sent shivers up her spine for entirely different reasons. Who made her feel like a goat.

She happened upon a set of thick-looking vines and had the sudden urge to climb them, so she did. They were sturdy and held her weight well. She'd gotten about ten feet off the ground when she heard his voice.

"I never thought you as much of a vine-scaler," Link called up to her, and she shot daggers, arrows, rapiers, swords from her eyes down at him.

"I've had a lot of practice with the walls you drive me to climb."

She heard the vines rustle beneath her. The _jerk_ was following her. _No_.

"Don't come any further! I'll throw myself down."

He snorted.

"And leave Hyrule without a princess? As if."

"No, I'll do it! I'll fling myself to my death and they'll blame you!"

"You're only ten feet up. The worst you'll do is break something, and I have a potion to repair it, and all you'll just have unnecessarily painful memories."

"Then I'll climb further and toss myself to die." She reached above, grabbing a particularly fat vine, and hoisted herself up. She heard him click his tongue in disapproval.

"Zelda, seriously, this isn't funny anymore. You might get hurt."

"Quit pampering me!" She scurried up a few more feet, moving like a spider on her web. When her feet didn't catch and she nearly fell, she ignored her fear, and continued her ascent.

He was getting flustered now.

"You're a princess! You're supposed to be pampered! It's nothing personal! ZELDA!"

"I'm not coming down. I'm climbing to the top of this tree."

"Come down and I'll use my clawshot to get us up. It'll be safer."

"No." Up she continued.

"Zelda, the canopy is a hundred feet in the air! Your arms will give out."

"No." She scurried up another ten feet. She was about halfway there by this point.

"Your feet might slip again!"

"NO!" She yelled, kicking the wall of vines on purpose, and knocking a clod of mud in his direction. She heard him spit and stutter.

"Argff! Youf got it in mah mouf!"

She answered with satisfied silence, and just continued her climb.

"Kill yourself, then! See how much I care!" Then, after a few huffs of air, "Zelda, baby, please come down. If you want to see the top, I'll take you."

"NO! I will NOT come down! I don't need you! I don't need you to take my places! I don't need you to keep me safe! I don't need you to protect me from every waking moment of life!"

Zelda was had two habits when she was angry. One was to gesticulate wildly, hands flapping. The other was to forget whatever she was doing.

This combination did not bode well for vine-climbing.

Time suddenly moved exceptionally slow, and she stared at her empty hands for what seemed like eternity before she began to crash back down.

"_ZELDA_!"

She fell perhaps twenty feet before Link caught her in one arm, then crashing her into the wall, her back against wood and vine. Of _course _he could catch her with one arm. _Of course he could. _And it didn't even hurt..._much_.

He slammed his palms on either side of her face and wrapped his bare feet into the vines behind her calves, completely trapping her. His hips pinned hers. She tried to beat her fists against his chest but he did not budge; he was rock-solid and using every inch of his strength to hold them up.

He was wild-eyed, the blue so bright and feral and stabbing into her own. She lifted her arms up weakly and grasped blindly for the vines again.

"What the _hell_ was that? You almost killed yourself! For the love of the goddesses, what is _wrong_ with you?! Triforce of Wisdom my _ass!_ That was literally the stupidest thing I've ever seen someone do, and trust me, _I have seen some things!" _He was screaming, his breath blazing hot across her cheeks and his chest heaving against her own. Her ears began to ring. She noted, dumbly, that he was as comfortable straddling her vertically on a wall sixty feet in the air as he was on the ground.

He pressed harder against her, so hard, ready to fling himself to the ground to cushion her if she fell. It would probably kill him, break his back.

Something in her shattered at the thought.

"I want to go to the top," was the best she mustered, a meek whisper.

He opened his mouth to yell at her again but for some reason slapped his lips back together and pursed them into a thin, white line.

"Fine." He let up the pressure, grabbed her around the waist, and somehow flipped her back around, so that she was facing the wall again. His breath was hot and wet on her ear.

"Climb. I'll follow," he hissed.

Climb she did, in silence. Her arms wanted to tremble but she did not let them. Could not let them. Would not let them. It would prove his point, whatever it was. So she let them ache.

When they finally reached the top, he practically flung her onto a nearby branch. It was rather odd, she drearily thought, for it was flat, as if someone had smoothed it out to sit on. She pulled her legs to her chest and watched as his feet tapped angrily.

"Now tell me, please. What in the name of Farore, Din, and Nayru above was all that about?!"

"I don't know."

The calm he'd managed to keep in his voice disappeared.

"What in the actual fucking hell do you mean, you don't know? You almost killed yourself! Why did you run off? Why did you-"

"I don't know! I told you, I don't _know_! Just stop. Please stop. _Please_. "

He looked as though he truly and desperately wanted to continue hollering, but he quit. He plopped down next to her and pushed his fingers to his temples, waiting for an answer she would not give him.

"Drink this." He pulled out a bottle of milk and shoved it into her cut-up hands. When he saw the blood, he sighed loudly.

"_Gods_, woman."

"I'm your princess. You're supposed to be more respectful than that."

He glared at her, all humor gone from his eyes. He pulled out a small vial of red potion and waited for her to drink her milk.

"Don't even start. Here and now, on top of this tree, we are equals." He took the bottle away before she was finished and began to pour the red liquid into her cuts. They cracked and fizzled as they healed, and she grimaced.

They sat in silence for a time. So long, in fact, that Link nodded off before she finally spoke again.

"I'm not helpless, you know." He snorted awake and looked annoyed at the interruption.

_Oh goddesses save me. He just snorted himself awake. Being in love is terrible. _

_That should _not_ have been cute._

"I never said you were. That still doesn't mean I'm not going to protect you. Or follow you. Or stop you from killing yourself," he snapped at her.

She just stared off into the sky. _Not a goat._

"I know nothing about you," she finally said, and he looked at her, startled. "I've let you in my bed, and I know nothing about you. I've birthed and lost your child, and I don't even know your middle name, or your favorite color, or food."

He stared at her incredulously.

"Y-you….could have asked this…without practically killing yourself…." She didn't respond, only drawing her knees to her chest and laying her forehead on them. He sighed.

"My full name was Lincoln Cael Orhansei-"

At that, her head snapped up. She _shouldn't_ be surprised, he _was_ Hylian, after all….

"You were of noble birth?! Then why weren't you-"

"My parents were killed when I was two, on a pumpkin delivery. I didn't know very much and I still don't; I just remember reading Mama's diary a few years back. Her family disowned her for marrying Papa."

Something about the way he said their titles made her heart break so loudly, she was sure he'd heard it. But he continued.

"I remember she was very beautiful, and obviously noble. Long golden hair, blue-green eyes. Father was a handsome man as well, though weathered. But whenever he looked at her he turned into a big puddle of red Chu jelly." Link chuckled. "My first memory is the three of us, snuggled on a hammock together, rocking gently next Ordon Creek. The glowbugs were out and I remember trying to catch them.

"I learned a lot about her, through her journals. She adjusted fairly well to country life, though she missed her dresses and being able to sleep in on the weekdays. And I remember her voice. She'd sing and it was like the heavens would light up. I have another memory of standing there in the kitchen with Papa, watching her hang wet laundry up. The wind picked up her skirts and hair and carried her voice so beautifully, she looked like an angel.

"So that's my middle name. Cael. But I just preferred to be called Link. And of course, my last name is no longer my own.

"As far as my favorite color, it's green."

Zelda forced back a smile. _Being in love is terrible. I'm not a goat. Not a goat…._

"Of course."

"I don't have a specific shade of green. I like all greens. My favorite is when I see something that fades from dark green to light, like sunlight on leaves when you're far up in a tree."

"Ah. Ombré effects."

"Err…yeah, whatever you say, milady. As far as favorite food…well. To be honest, I would have always said pumpkin pie. But…" He cocked his head mischievously at Zelda, who rolled her eyes, expecting some dirty comment.

"But what?"

"Well…that mushroom-stuffed Cornish hen your cooks make sometimes is fantastic. It's fancy food, and I have a love-hate relationship with fancy food. But that's one dish I'll make an exception for."

Zelda nodded in agreement. "It's a delectable dish. "

"So, then. What about you. Middle name, favorite color, favorite food." His fingers wrapped tightly around hers.

"Most of Hyrule knows my middle names, you know. I should have a word with Mayor Bo on the state of Ordon education…"

Link laughed outright at that.

"The only education that exists here is the one nature teaches. We don't care much for the fancy middle names of the monarchy."

"And yet, here we are." They were scooting closer, closer, closer, inch by inch. _NOT A GOAT! CONTAIN YOURSELF, ZELDA! _

"Well, like I said. We aren't monarch and goat-boy right now. We are equals."

"Mmmm-hmmm. Right. You're definitely still a goat-boy. Your scent betrays you." He clicked his tongue, and she found herself melting. _Argh….._

"Middle name, Princess."

"Middle _names_, good sir." He gave her a confused look, his strong brows furrowing together. She wanted to kiss the junction where they met.

"You have more than one?!"

"Yes. Five, in fact. My full name is Griselda Blythe Magdalene Luceen Shayne Harkinian Nohansen."

He blinked, two or three times.

"….I think I'll stick with Zellie. Although 'milady' does suit you."

"Well, thank you. As far as my favorite color….I must say lavender." Link laughed a little at that.

"Everything with you is lavender. Your perfume, your soaps, your clothes."

"Yes well. I like it. And my favorite food…well. You mustn't' laugh."

"I'd never laugh at you…_milady_."

Zelda leaned forward, cunning eyes full of mischief, as if she were about to spill some delicious secret. Link leaned forward, too, and they were almost kissing when she spoke.

"My favorite dish is sunny-side up eggs, potato hash cakes, and so much bacon it could feed the entirety of Hyrule's military."

Link responded by pressing his warm lips to her cool ones. He tasted like honeycomb.

"So are you still mad at?" he asked, then pulled her in again.

"Oh, I'll be mad at you for the rest of our lives." _Kiss._

"For what?!" He was pouting. _Kiss kiss. _

"For being in love with you. I'm not a goat, you know. I can't just follow you around all the time." _Kiss kiss kiss._

He tried to come up with a witty retort, but found himself incapable. She kissed him again.

_Oh, hell. _

And surrendered, perhaps against her will.

The next morning, wrapped in his soft cotton sheets, wearing one of his ratty-but-clean tunics, she wondered if all that drama yesterday was really worth it. The treehouse smelled of wood oils and Link and…eggs and potatoes and bacon, oddly enough.

He burst into her vision, shining like some green and gold god with a plate of her favorite food plus extra, and a glass of goat's milk. He was dressed in those low-slung green pants that practically exposed his public bone and his hair was perfectly, beautifully, adorably mussed. He'd soon be off to herd goats or fish or rescue a cat or do something equally and frustratingly adorable.

"You're on vacation, remember, milady? I'll wait on you happily. Here, I'll bring you some coffee and sweet cream in a moment." He closed his eyes and smiled toothily, his head tilted to the side.

She picked up a muffin from the plate he'd set down (pumpkin, from the smell of it) and buttered it with her index finger. Now _that_ was something she'd never be able to do back home.

She shrugged to herself. Perhaps being in love wasn't so terrible, after all.

And if that made her a goat, oh well.


	13. Beautiful Girl

_Legend has it that there was once a pair of fairies, one golden as the sun and one violet as the night. They were brother and sister and loved each other very much. They went through many adventures together, but one day, they came across a little red wood sprite, lost and newly released from her master, a green flame of a daylit man who seemed to carry the power of time in his pocket. _

_ Now, the purple fairy fell in love with the red sprite the moment he saw her, for she had beautiful blue eyes and long, white-streaked hair. The little golden fairy was very jealous of her brother's newfound love, having spent decades flitting about the lands with no one but him, and never wishing to love anyone else. But for his sake she welcomed the forest sprite to play with them, growing more and more envious of the attention her brother would bestow, feeling bitter neglect rising in her tiny golden heart. _

_Eventually, the little golden fairy silently flew away from her brother and his love. But what the golden one didn't know is that the sprite loved her as much as she loved the violet boy. They had spent many moons together, meeting many people and animals and plants, drinking of many streams and sharing in many flights, and it was all precious to the sprite. She had limited time until her master called her again._

_Still, the violet boy and red sprite began to search for the golden one, but she was nowhere to be found. And after a time they grew so desperate they decided to separate, the wood sprite taking to the land and the violet fairy taking to the sky. And in time, so singular was their desire to find their lost sister, the sprite morphed into a creature of great strength and size with hooves that rent the earth when she ran, and the violet one grew wings long and wide and sharp talons and a killer's instinct for blood. _

_He flew so high and she ran so fast, they were eventually lost to the other. When they realized this, their tears fell. And where his tears kissed the green earth, the grass bloomed flowers shaped of the half-ring feet of his lover; where her tears splattered between her thundering legs, the grass bloomed flowers shaped of the wings that tore him away from her. And the winds began to whistle music of lost lovers doomed to circle the other in the presence of shared sorrow. And in time, they cried so many messenger's tears they had nothing left to give, and they became wandering spirits too far apart to see how close they truly were._

_ It was then the golden fairy happened upon one of these flower-patches, and she suddenly knew that they had been looking for her and lost each other along the way, all because of her. Driven by remorse deep as the sky and determination of make things right, the golden fairy threw herself into the white clouds and melted herself into the great yellow orb of day, vowing that she would save them. The violet one felt her sacrifice and cried out to her, but she swept her sunbeam wings over him and promised to illuminate his path no matter where he flew. _

_So she shone one the trekking souls, cursed by a love that died as soon as it flourished and blossomed as soon as it died. And the violet one, illumined by his beloved sister, searched the winds, and the sprite thundered the ground, each waiting, needing, hoping. _

_ But one day, the sprite's sharp ears were pricked with green-leaf song, and she abandoned her search of her lover for the sake of her master. Yet the violet spirit followed, hoping it would lead him to her again, that they may bask in the golden sun together…_

* * *

The sky was dreary gray and befitting of the occasion. Some would have considered this weather depressing, but Link always liked it. Perhaps it wasn't bright, but it was calming, peaceful. Cleansing, almost. And it cooled him down as he worked.

The shovel cut cleanly through the clay, making a soft _chink_ each time it cleaved into the metallic mud. Finding himself thirsty, he tilted his head back and let the droplets coat his throat in soothing water.

Across the graveyard, he saw Zelda sitting under one of the castle's small awnings, bundled into thick cloaks with her face mostly obscured. Even from the distance he could feel her sadness and her concern for him- she'd offered to get help, and even to assist with her own hands, but Link had insisted. This was his duty and his alone.

Tetrii, their four-year-old daughter, bounced into view like a little ray of sunlight bursting through the lifeless rain. The girl reached into her mother's cloak and pulled out Zelda's porcelain hand in an attempt to drag both of them to Link; he was sure the girl was chattering about like the little songbirds she seemed to embody. But Zelda pulled the girl back, whispered something in her ear, and off she ran, dejected and alone. Link felt pangs of guilt tug at his heart. He'd make it up to her later, he thought with determination; perhaps take her for a ride…_oh_. No….no, he wouldn't be able to do that for a while. If ever again, really.

* * *

_The little boy ricocheted into Bo's house flanked closely by Ilia. His small feet were muddy and bare and already calloused with adventure, and his eyes blazed with rugged grit. His slapped his filthy hands on the mayor's desk and jumped up and down. Even Ilia, who normally would have chastised him by this point, looked like she was bursting with secrets._

_ "What's on your mind, boy?" Bo asked, attempting to be stern but failing. _

_ "There is a horse in the spring!"_

_ "…a what?!"_

_ "Yes, Daddy! There's a horse! A baby horse! A real baby horse!" Ilia's excitement became too much and she began to bounce around with Link, grabbing his hands and dancing in a circle._

_ "She's copper and beautiful and has a pure white mane! And she's in the spring!" Both of their voices had become so excited and high-pitched, Bo wasn't sure which one said it. _

_ Horses were rare in Ordon, though they likely would have helped with the goat herding. Truthfully, they were too expensive. A quality draft horse cost at least thirty-thousand Rupees and to build a proper stable would have cost more. Young Fado had a sweet, old little pony a few years back but the creature had long passed. _

_ But what really convinced Bo was the smile on his daughter's face as she whirled around the room with her friend. He hadn't seen that smile since he mother died four months prior. And he knew _exactly_ where this situation was going- that they would want to keep the foal, that he wouldn't be able to tell them "no," and that he'd have to justify to the goatherds why a new addition to the pens was worth it. But he shifted his large frame from his desk, anyway, and told them to lead the way. He hoped the horse would be gone by the time they got there._

_ Perhaps a touch unfortunately, the little horse was still in the spring, standing and trying to eat some of the grass that grew along the bottom. _

_The little ones nearly fainted when they saw the creature again._

_ The poor thing was emaciated, but even in her meager state, Bo could see her beauty. Judging from the white tufts around her little legs, she looked to be a draft horse mix, but it was impossible to guess what size she would grow to be. Her ribs were visible through her red coat and her eyes were a unique, beautiful cerulean. She was clearly a newborn, and Bo couldn't help but feel sorry for the girl. He wondered if she was premature, and if that was why she'd been abandoned._

_ "All right, kids, if we are going to keep her, we need to-" But they weren't listening; they were too busy stroking their new pet and braiding her mane. Well, Ilia was braiding the mane, Link was fussing her for making the foal look "girly" and "stupid."_

_ "She's a girl! You're the stupid one!" Ilia hissed at him as she stooped down, plucked some flowers, and began to weave them into the white hair, "she's supposed to look like a lady!" Bo couldn't help but marvel at how calm the foal was around such loud children. _

_ "She doesn't need stupid flowers, she's already a beautiful girl," Link said softly, petting her velvet ears as though he'd just found his best friend. She turned around and nibbled on his sleeve. _

_ And then, in an enormous burst of strength far too great for a barely-eight-year-old, Link picked the foal up and began to walk back to the village, Ilia barking at him to be careful with "Fairyflower."_

* * *

It was nearly nightfall when Zelda finally walked over to her husband, a handkerchief knotted and filled with buttered bread and jam in one hand, umbrella in the other. He'd been a stubborn ass all day and needed to eat.

The hole was enormous and with all the rain, he was lucky it didn't cave inwards. It was almost as tall as he and at least twice as wide; he was only visible from the eyebrows up. She peered over the ledge and as she opened her mouth to speak, the slick side gave way. In she fell.

He managed to catch her in one arm, with that grace and power only he could manage, before setting her back on her feet. The smallest of smiles crept across his face.

"I think your dress is ruined, m'dear," he said, plucking the food from her hand before the handkerchief got too soaked with dirt. He tore it open and bit into a roll, not bothering with the jam.

"Link," she said as calmly, gently as possible, not wanting to upset him further, "You could kill yourself with this. Do you know how you want to get out of this hole? How much bigger does it have to be? I can help."

He finished his roll, letting the rain wash away the crumbs that stuck to his chin, before answering.

"It doesn't," he whispered, and her heart wrenched at how childlike his voice had become, "I just didn't want to bury her yet."

Zelda reached out and touched his cheek, feeling the hot tears mingle with the cool rain. He trembled at her touch for the shortest of moments before collapsing against her breast altogether, gasping sobs and digging his fingers into her back. She ran her hands through his hair, gently unknotting the tangles he hadn't bothered with that morning, and kissed him softly.

* * *

_"C'mon, beautiful girl," Link urged the foal, holding the bottle to her mouth and patting her belly. "You've gotta eat. You've gotta be a healthy girl." But the horse spit out the bottle's nipple and refused to drink._

_ It'd been a week since they found her, sitting there as if she'd just appeared out of spring water. She did not look much better than she did then. Bo had convinced the goatherds to clear out a stall, even buying a few blankets from Kakariko to keep her warm, and kept a barrel of fresh milk to sustain her._

_For his part, Link would appear every morning to clean the pen and care for the horse, attempting to feed her every two hours as orphaned foals so needed. But she was stubborn and only ate when she was truly desperate, and even in those moments it practically took an act of the goddesses. Truthfully, Link would have kept it up forever, but he'd heard the goatherds whisper about killing her and gutting her for her parts, as she was a money-suck and a waste of time; he knew her days were limited if he didn't get her healthy quickly._

_ If she doesn't want to live, she ain't gonna live, as one of them told him._

_ The words stung sharply in his mind as the foal refused to drink yet again and finally, his frustration gave way. He threw the bottle to the ground and stormed outside, chest heaving and eyes streaming tears. He plucked a nearby flower of horse-grass and with infuriated wind, blew a few sharp notes._

_ The foal's responding neigh was staggering._

_ Link nearly dropped the grass but instead bolted back to her._

_ "You like that, beautiful girl?" He asked eagerly, and she somehow managed to stand on her wobbly legs. He hopped the fence and picked up the bottle. Slowly, she began to nuzzle him, before taking a tentative sip of milk._

_ "Good girl," he whispered as she began to drink thirstily, "beautiful girl. We don't have anyone else, but that's okay. It'll be just you and me. Strays gotta stick together. Just a boy and his beautiful girl." He brought the horse-grass to his lips and played a softer song._

* * *

That morning had easily been one of the worst of Link's life. And the best.

The best came as he walked with heavy feet, followed by the stable's veterinarian, to the horse stalls. She had taken a sharp decline during the night, the good doctor told him.

But Link hadn't needed the man to tell him that something was wrong; he'd known for weeks that her time was near. She'd lived a full life, a good life. She was the best goat-horse Ordon had ever known, adapting with little instruction and riding easily with Link on her back. She also tolerated children exceptionally well and when he was a wolf….

When he was a wolf, it was the first time he'd ever spoken to her directly. And though her words were few, they were encouraging, and her heart was deep with adoration. It powered him through that last battle, that last battle where she'd truly shown her mettle, balancing two riders as they slashed and shot death down in his tracks. They'd been lost if not for her. _He'd_ been lost if not for her.

She'd foaled three times over the course of six years, producing babies as sturdy and trustworthy as their dam. But Link had given them as gifts to Kakariko and Ordon and another outlying farming province. Now, he regretted the decision more than ever, and wished fiercely to take them back. It was selfish desire. Foolish, for they needed the steeds more than he did; he had an entire Royal Stables at his disposal. But he still regretted it.

He approached her stall quietly, swinging the door back. She was lying on the ground rather than standing, which made Link's stomach drop. He turned to the veterinarian.

"Please, let me alone for a moment, and close the stable doors so that no one can come in." The man nodded and did as he was told.

Link touched the Wolfstone to his skin and became a beast again; it was something he hadn't done in months. He approached the red mare quietly, padding up to her before nudging her with his muzzle.

_You stink of dog, _ the mare chortled, her deep, rich voice filling his head.

_Beautiful girl,_ he whispered, and she snorted through her nose.

_I am growing tired, Master. So very tired._

_I know_, he near-choked, burying his muzzle deeper into her side. She snorted again.

_ I don't understand why you humans mourn so much. It is the way of life. We live, we die, we become the earth again. It is part of something great._

He managed a chuckle at that. _I didn't think you'd understand, beautiful girl._

_ Stop calling me that. I am no longer beautiful. My coat is dull, my mane is dry. My bones are brittle and my joints as weak. I can barely stand to drink._

_ Yet, you are still my beautiful girl._

The horse fixed a clouded blue eye on her Master, and Link was sure she was smiling, or whatever the horse equivalent of smiling was.

_Perhaps I have a little bit left_, she mused. _Just one._

A few minutes later, the stable doors burst open the way the sun bursts onto the horizon on a summer's day. Red horse and green rider bolted out, her white-streaked mane and tail whipping in the wind. He issued no commands as she ran straight towards the fence-jumping course, knocking over the veterinarian along the way, moving as one.

* * *

_Zelda trotted in a circle, trying not to fall off of Epona's bare back._

_ "This is considerably more difficult than it looks," she half-shouted to her beau, who couldn't help but laugh._

_ "You were bareback in the battle with Ganondorf! Surely that was more stressful."_

_ "Yes, but I wasn't thinking about it. Now…"_

_ "Now, you are overthinking this. You're doing fine. You're the only person other than me that can ride her. Even Ilia would get bucked off."_

_ "I'd buck Ilia off, too." The words were out of Zelda's mouth before she had the chance to stop them and Link's jaw dropped._

_ "Ouch, Princess! That's one of your royal subjects you're talking about!"_

_ "Yes, well. Royal subject that kept trying to make a move on my man."_

_ Link smirked. "I'd pay good money to see the two of you wrestling over me. Two hot chicks, fighting it out for the love of their man. Slap you both in a couple of string bikinis, or hell, forego clothes altogether…"_

_ "Liiink…" Zelda's voice held a warning, but he ignored it, choosing to face her wrath instead as he continued._

_ "Yep, it'd be great, we'd throw you in a mud pit- no, a big pool of whipped cream so I could lick it off afterwards, when the three of us would-"_

_ It was he was met with the brick-wall chest of a horse and the glare of Zelda. His ass hit the ground._

_ "I'd like to see you try and continue this train of thought," she hissed, glaring down at him as his smirk grew wider._

_ "Sure thing, Princess. I'll even do it from behind you." With impossible quickness, he slung himself onto Epona's back and off the trio galloped into the melting golden sun._

* * *

The worst came when Link stood before Epona's open stall. The horse looked beautiful and serene; she'd decided to lie back on the ground, as if to make it easier.

"I can do it for you, Sir Link," the veterinarian said gently, placing a hand on his shoulder and gripping it firmly. "You don't have to suffer through this." But Link shook his head.

"No. It was my hands that led her to life, and it will be my hands that..." he let he sentence hang in the air.

"There are potions that bring about the end…"

"Yet it is not painless. This will be quicker," Link finished, and the other man nodded.

The veterinarian seemed to understand. "I'll be right here beside you, good sir." His voice broke a little bit. "I recently lost a little dog. She was my best friend after my wife died in the war…"

Link did not respond, only unsheathed his sword.

* * *

Link and the veterinarian had tightly wrappedEpona's body had in yards and yards of white shroud, folding her legs in as best as they could, before lifting her onto a cart and rolling her to the Castle Graveyard. Some nobles would probably have considered this an abomination; desecration of the resting place of royals, but Link would have her buried nowhere else. The doctor offered to help him dig but Link insisted on doing it himself.

So as the rain dripped from the grizzled sky, he slung shovelful after shovelful of mud over his shoulder, and talked more than he ever had in his entire life. He talked about the first fence they'd jumped together to the first time he heard her voice to the first time Ilia managed to stay on for more than ten seconds before getting bucked off. He talked and talked and talked about all of these things, until Zelda found him, bread in hand.

And now, he was silent as he pulled the levers on the cart, easing the mare's large form into her tomb. Zelda, no knowing what else to do, started to push mud into the pit. Link stopped her.

"Just a moment," he said, reaching into his pocket. He pulled out the horse call, and detached the beaded lanyard it hung from. He flung the leather strip into the pit, then a small bag of carrots, before nodding to Zelda to continue. They worked silently as the rain slowed, well into the night, packing the mud tightly. It was after midnight when they finished. Link leaned on the shovel and snaked his arm around his wife's waist, pulling her to him.

The next morning, he visited again, placing a small stone plaque at the foot of the grave. He read it aloud; pleased with the words he had chosen:

"_A Beautiful Girl Rests Here."_

#$$%^%^&^&*((&*)&*%^&#$%!#!##$%$%^%^&&^*&*(*&(&*(^%&%$^#$%#$ #$

The winter was frigid and snow covered the graves so thickly, the headstones disappeared completely. It was long and harsh but eventually melted into summer, and the yellow sun shone bright again.

It was after a few weeks of sunshine that Tetrii bounded into her father's study with a bouquet of horse-grass and bird-whistles. She'd tied it with the gold and violet ribbon that was _supposed_ to be for her hair, the one that Link had fastened earlier that day after arguing with her over the color for ten minutes.

"Tetrii! It took me twenty minutes to tie your hair up!" He scolded, before noticing the bouquet of muddy brown flowers. "Where did you find _that_?"

"The graveyard! They were-"

"Why were you in the graveyard, of all places?! You know you aren't supposed to play there!" He was mad now. The girl never listened.

"Well…" her huge blue eyes shifted left to right, "I was led there."

Link put his hands on his hips.

"Oh really? By whom, pray tell?"

"_Byapurplefairy_," she murmured so softly, Link couldn't hear.

"Speak up, daughter! You know what I taught you. If you're going to cause trouble, own it, don't shrink away!"

"By a purple fairy!" The girl yelled, and Link was halfway through his eye roll before he froze in realization. A child's tale, perhaps, but it seemed that his entire life was made of fairytales sometimes…

"Mama says that if you make that face too much, it'll freeze that way."

But Link didn't even acknowledge his daughter's statement, only swooping her up before running as quickly as possible to the grave.

What met his eyes was a glorious display, bright and brimming with life; an enormous spread of horse-grass and hawk-whistle grew where Epona rested, punctuated by huge, yellow and violet flowers sprouting between the red-brown leaves. Tears of sadness, tears of joy. And then it was all so clear- the mysterious foal in the life-spring, the white streaks of her mane shining bright against her red coat, how she always ran, always came to him when he called. How she found herself not by looking to the sky, but by living on the earth. Sunbeams drenched the grave in yellow light.

"He found you," Link whispered, much to his daughter's confusion. He hugged the girl tight to his chest, and stooped down to pluck a flower.


	14. Golden Boy

Notes:

**Everyone should be able to review again, so um. Dooooo ittttttt. Plzzz?!**

Seems like everyone likes Link backstory, so I wrote this because backstories are fun

Let's go on a feel trip

The next chapter will probably be a continuation of a previous chapter, but I won't say which one :p

Enjoy!

….

There was once a little boy who belonged to everyone and no one at all.

He was a beautiful little boy, with huge sapphire eyes that shimmered like the sea and honey-colored hair that lay thatched and tangled on his head. Underneath dirt his skin was white as goat's milk and his cheeks were rosy, and he loved to romp and play like so many children do.

He was as polite as a little boy with no parents could be, but he often spilled the milk at dinner or dropped his too-big spoon, splattering stew on white linen. He had clumsy fingers and could not tie a knot, or string a slingshot, or carry pumpkins, or milk the goats, much less how to carry the jugs of white goodness; and the other children teased him, admonishing him for his ungainly hands. So the little boy who belonged to everyone and no one at all ran into the forest, bare-skinned feet cutting on twigs and rocks and thorns.

He ran until his little legs could carry him no further, until he fell into a hole. It was a very deep hole that glowed many colors, and it seemed as though the fall would never end. But end it did, with the boy landing on his bony little bottom. He did not rise from his spot, for it hurt, and though he thought it shameful for little boys to do so, he began to cry and cry and cry, tears streaming from his eyes like the leaky handle of Ordon's water-well.

Now as he cried, a being most celestial happened upon him. It was a wolf with fur of the finest spun-gold, one crimson eye shining bright through the dark. He approached the little boy, who was unaware of his holy presence.

_I know you,_ the wolf said slowly, and the little boy's head jerked up.

_Why are you in my home, little one?_

The boy wanted to yell, but knew that not a soul would hear him.

"I fell," he said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

_Clearly._ The wolf's tone was short and clipped, and the boy fell to tears once more. This creature would devour him, most certainly. Perhaps it was for the best.

_Now, now. None of that. You may stay, for a little while at least. _And the golden beast encircled his little form, brushing a tear with the tuft of his tail.

_No need to cry._

But the little boy buried his face into flaxen fur that smelled of honey and forest air, curling up to the creature. So massive was the wolf, the little boy nearly disappeared. They stayed like this for some time, and eventually the little boy settled, drunk from crying. A small pink tongue emerged from a yellow snout, licking dried tracks of salted teardrops; it was soft and ticklish and like a father's easy kisses, and the boy fell asleep to the thrum of a powerful heart, nestled between flank and belly with a golden tail for a blanket.

The wolf let the boy rest, for he was weary, and the dog felt the most immutable bond to the child. He felt the need to guide and the need to protect. So he allowed the boy to sleep.

When the boy woke his eyes were still bleary, so the wolf licked his cheeks and beat his golden tail until the child began to laugh. It was a lovely laugh, tinkling and fair, and the wolf's heart swelled with sadness at the sound.

_We should get you home, little one._

"I have no home."

_Have you no parents?_

"No. I belong to everyone and no one at all."

And the wolf found himself with a deep ache that drummed heavy on his ribcage. So he asked the child,

_What is your name?_

"My name is Link." But the wolf knew that already.

_Well, Link, what if I told you that I could become a man, for just a day, perhaps?_

_ "_I wouldn't believe you," the boy said stubbornly, and the wolf laughed.

_What if I could be your father for a day, and show you how to tie slingshots and carry jugs of milk and all the other things you struggle to do?_

Link's eyes grew very wide at that, for it was certainly all he wanted, belonging to everyone and no one at all. The wolf laughed again and with one gleaming moment, transformed into a wolf-man.

Even to Link's little eyes, he could tell the wolf-man was very handsome, despite one missing eye. But the other was a bright blue orb and he had very long honeycomb-colored hair, and pale skin the color of cream. His arms and bare feet were wrapped in bandages and he wore a simple white shirt, and dark green pants. His ears were long and pointed- longer than Link had ever seen, even longer than his own. He felt very familiar.

"Would you like for me to read you a story?" The wolf-man's voice had a light timbre that comforted the boy the way water soothes a parched throat. So he waved his hand and the forest transformed to a small house, the very air around them humming.

The wolf-man perched on a cushion and patted his thigh. Link clambered up happily. A book was found and the wolf-man began to read.

_"Once upon a time…"_

It was a story about a little pink pig and a little gray cat, and Link was entranced by the words, propping the book open with tiny trembling fingers, pointing to the illustrations and babbling, just like Ilia would do with her father. The man's strong arms encircled him and he felt like he was home. It was the first time someone read for him, and only him. For he belonged everyone, and no one at all; parents could only read a story so many times, after all.

It was too soon that the story was over, but the man stood up with Link scooped into his arms, and they left strange little home. The child was too young to wield a sword and too small to nock an arrow, but the wolf-man taught Link all the little things he wished to learn- how to string a slingshot, how to carry a jug of milk (one hand on top, one hand on bottom, the easiest for little fingers), how to carry heavy pumpkins (same as the milk jug), even how to tie several knots. But as the red sun began to sink in the sky, the man cocked his head down at his little pupil, thrilled at having tangled an enormous length of rope, and he looked very sad indeed.

"We truly do need to get you home, my son," he said, and Link began to cry again.

"Now, now. No need to cry, little one. Only cry when you truly must."

"B-but I truly must right now!" The little boy was sobbing now, with rope clutched in hand. The cries wracking his tiny frame viciously and the man pulled him back into sturdy, bandaged arms.

"Hush," he said, letting the boy's ruddy face bury to his shoulder, rocking him back and forth, back and forth, brushing his hair with fingertips in that way a father eases. His body felt entombed by the child's tears, his soul a sticky web of regret he could not wrench away. He carried Link to the village, murmuring stories of twinkling fairies and time-travel and beautiful Princesses disguised as ninjas.

"We are to your healing spring. You can find your way home from here." He set the boy down, suddenly seized with fear that he may cry again, but the child didn't. He was used to goodbyes.

It was the boy who reached up this time, and the wolf was astonished to find tears of his own, spilling soundlessly and soaking his chin. He bent down, and little lips pressed to the wolf-man's cheeks, little hands knotting into honey-colored hair; a son's butterfly kisses soon to be lost in the wind, a child's desperate clutches for protection from pain.

"Will I see you again?" the boy asked, and the wolf-man smiled again.

"One day, I am most certain of it."

He pushed the boy off, turning away to run before the pain became too much. Yet as padded paws ran over sticks and padded soles ran to a home that was not a home, one thought still connected them, the way lightning connects to a tree, like a stream of glowbugs between them.

Years later, Link would recall the golden wolf only in dreams, but the skills never left his heart. And sometimes, if sleep was peaceful, he'd dream of a story of pink pigs and gray cats and Princesses dressed as ninjas, and he'd know he belonged to someone, after all.


End file.
